Stavanger Cathedral is said to have started construction of the cathedral around 1100. It was finished around 1150: the city of Stavanger counts 1125 as its year of foundation. The cathedral was dedicated to Saint Swithun, an early Bishop of Winchester and subsequently patron saint of Winchester Cathedral. The church was initially the seat of the Diocese of Stavanger within the Roman Catholic Church until the Protestant Reformation. Stavanger was ravaged by fire in 1272, and the cathedral suffered heavy damage. It was rebuilt under Bishop Arne (1276–1303) at which time the Romanesque cathedral was enlarged in the Gothic style. In 1682,
Bishop of Winchester on 14 October 2011. He was consecrated as a bishop at St Paul's Cathedral, London, on 25 January 2012. Bishop of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat ("cathedra") is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester is appointed by the Crown, and is one of five Church of England bishops who sit "ex officio" among the 26 Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords, regardless of their length of service. The Diocese of Winchester is one of the oldest and most important