Learnings: The Old Minster
The first cathedral church of Wessex was built around 640 CE by King Cenwalh of Wessex and Saint Birinus, a Frankish missionary, though it was further north in Dorchester on Thames rather than in Winchester. When the bishop's seat was moved to Winchester a few years later, the Old Minster may have been the first stone building erected in Winchester since the departure of the Romans hundreds of years earlier. This in-game shot from Assassin's Creed: Valhalla shows how the development team sought to capture the majestic interior of the building. However, the church would have felt far more cramped at the time, as the building itself was narrower with many side chapels and altars in the corners. Burning incense and smoke from the tapers would have also given it a sultry atmosphere.