The Bayeux Tapestry Tickets

The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered cloth nearly 70 metres long and 50 centimetres tall that depicts the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, led by William, Duke of Normandy, challenging Harold II, King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings. It is thought to date to the 11th century, within a few years of the battle. Now widely accepted to have been made in England, perhaps as a gift for William, it tells the story from the point of view of the conquering Normans and for centuries has been remarkably preserved in Bayeux, Normandy, France.

The cloth consists of 58 scenes, all with Medieval Latin tituli, embroidered on linen with coloured woollen yarns. It is likely that it was commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, William's half-brother, and made for him in England in the 1070s. In 1729, the hanging was rediscovered by scholars at a time when it was being displayed annually in Bayeux Cathedral. The tapestry is normally exhibited at the Musée de la Tapisserie de Bayeux in Bayeux, but the museum is closed for renovations. It returned to England for the first time in possibly over 900 years, to be displayed at the British Museum in London from September 2026 to July 2027.

The designs on the Bayeux Tapestry are embroidered rather than in a tapestry weave, so it does not meet narrower definitions of a tapestry. It can be seen as a rare example of secular Romanesque art. Tapestries adorned both churches and wealthy houses in medieval Western Europe, though at 0.5 by 68.38 m, the Bayeux Tapestry is exceptionally large. The background is not embroidered, providing a large, clear field of cloth which allows the figures and decorative elements to stand out very clearly.