The Bayeux Tapestry, a famous medieval embroidery that tells the story of the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, includes 33 buildings that give a glimpse into 11th-century architecture. These structures range from grand palaces and religious buildings to two-story houses and simple homes, offering a general sense of the built environments on both sides of the English Channel. The designs suggest the tapestry’s creator had knowledge of monastic scriptoria—rooms where monks copied manuscripts—and stonemasonry, with some elements resembling Romanesque sculpture found at Ely Cathedral. The tapestry begins with a scene of Edward the Confessor sending Harold to Normandy, depicted in a large hall with turrets. The entrance porch is shown from the outside, rotated to give viewers a clear view of its exterior. The abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel is illustrated as a building on a rock, but this image is too abstract to be used for accurate reconstruction. The artists of the time often favored symbolic representation over realistic detail. Westminster Abbey, the largest building shown in the tapestry, was under construction during Edward the Confessor’s reign and was not yet completed in 1066. The tapestry depicts a funeral procession approaching the church, showing a nave with an arcade of five arches, a massive tower with square angle turrets, and a freestanding tower with a ladder for a weathercock. This suggests a stone building with high towers and tiled roofs. Comparing Westminster Abbey to the church of Bosham, where Harold prayed before sailing to France, highlights the difference in scale. The church at Bosham only has a remaining tower, while the tapestry does not depict a tower, suggesting the building shown is not an architecturally accurate image. The tapestry also shows five motte-and-bailey castles, including Dol, Rennes, Dinan, Bayeux in France, and Hastings in England. The latter is still under construction, with a Norman knight directing Anglo-Saxon peasants to dig the moat and raise the motte. These castles were preferred for their speed of construction, with wooden parts brought ready-made by William the Conqueror’s army, as noted in the 12th-century "Roman de Rou" by Wace. While the buildings on the tapestry cannot be used for exact reconstruction, they provide an idea of how 11th-century audiences would use architectural elements to depict great churches, halls, castles, and even the homes of Anglo-Saxon farmers. The tapestry’s designs, created by a trained artist and used by embroiderers, may have been influenced by nuns from Barking Abbey in Canterbury, given the skillful needlework similar to other 11th-century English embroidery.