The Commandery

About

The Commandery is a historic building open to visitors and located in the city of Worcester, England. It opened as a museum in 1977 and was for a while the only museum in England dedicated solely to the Civil Wars. The Commandery ceased to be a Civil War museum when it reopened to the public in May 2007, having undergone a year and a half of refurbishments and reinterpretation jointly funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Worcester City Council, who own the Grade I listed building.

The first building on the Commandery site was the Hospital of St. Wulfstan, which was constructed around 1085 on the orders of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester (later Saint Wulfstan) as a hospital or almshouse (today a hospice) for the terminally ill, the destitute and pilgrims; it was built around the site of the Chapel of St. Gudwal, which had existed there since the 950s. The institution was then probably renamed during the early 13th century to mark the canonisation of St. Wulfstan, which occurred in 1203. The first written record of the building is in "The Miracles of St. Wulfstan", which were compiled in 1240. This collection of stories refers to a Thomas of...