Canterbury's Gothic choir exists largely because a murder needed somewhere grand to be memorialised, and the shrine built for that purpose was later destroyed by the very institution meant to protect it.
Rebuilt to receive pilgrims
A major fire in 1174 destroyed the choir of the existing Romanesque cathedral, and its reconstruction, led by the French architect William of Sens, introduced early Gothic elements to England on a scale intended specifically to accommodate the enormous number of pilgrims visiting the shrine of the recently murdered Archbishop Thomas Becket, making the building's architectural ambition directly tied to its function as a pilgrimage destination.
The shrine that did not survive the Reformation
Becket's shrine, one of medieval Europe's most visited pilgrimage sites, was destroyed in 1538 on the order of Henry VIII during the dissolution of the monasteries, its treasures confiscated and the site itself levelled, removing physically what had for centuries been the cathedral's primary draw for visitors from across Christendom.
As this entry's companion article covers
Becket's 1170 murder inside the cathedral, and the contemporary tensions within the worldwide Anglican Communion, of which Canterbury remains the symbolic centre, are addressed directly in this entry's companion article rather than repeated here.