About York …

The Roman fortress of Eboracum was probably established in AD71. It was home at first to the Ninth Legion and then to the Sixth Legion, and housed over five thousand troops.

Initially with timber buildings inside earth and timber defences, the fortress was rebuilt in stone during the 2nd and 3rd centuries. The civilian settlement, Colonia Eboracensis, which grew up across the River Ouse from the fortress, became one of the most important economic and administrative centres in Roman Britain.

 The Multangular Tower
The fate of the town following the end of Roman rule c. AD 400 is uncertain. By c.600, if not before, the legionary fortress was probably a royal holding that housed a royal residence; a cathedral church was founded in 627 and was maintained during the Anglian and Anglo-Scandinavian (Viking Age) periods, when York was the capital of the kingdom of Northumbria. The name of the settlement evolved from its Roman origin during this time to Eoforwic and then Jorvik. At Fishergate, to the south of the walled town, evidence of a 7th-9th century Anglian settlement alongside the river has been found.
In the later 9th century, an area just outside the fortress was re-occupied and the current street system began to develop. The major excavations at 16–22 Coppergate showed that the town became steadily more built up during the Viking Age and medieval periods, and revealed a remarkably well-preserved sequence of 10th-century timber buildings which are now displayed in JORVIK.
The Normans captured York in 1068 and constructed two castles to control it, and dammed a river in order to create a moat around one of them. They also rebuilt the Cathedral, known as York Minster, which was successively enlarged on an ever grander scale until it reached its present size in 1472.
 York Minster ©Anthony Crawshaw
The Minster is renowned for its medieval painted glass, and fine glass is also to be seen in several of the City's other medieval parish churches. The town housed all four monastic orders and 24 hospitals, more even than London. York was a major port and manufacturing centre throughout the medieval period, and this importance is represented by the magnificent Merchant Adventurers' Hall of 1357 as well as in the large number of later medieval timber framed buildings which survive.
In the 16th–18th centuries York was principally a social centre, and there are notable Georgian town houses and public buildings, including Fairfax House which is fully furnished in period style and open to the public. Railways brought new prosperity in the 19th century; there is a fine mid-Victorian station, and the City houses the National Railway Museum. The Castle Museum holds a well-known collection of 19th- and 20th-century material, including the famous simulated Victorian street, Kirkgate, and The Yorkshire Museum, set alongside the ruins of St Mary's Abbey and St Leonard's Hospital, holds important archaeological and other collections.