The Nidaros cathedral is the main hub of the Barokkfest festival. Build from the twelfth century onwards, the cathedral was the most important ecclesiastic complex of Northern Catholic Europe. Providing a major centre for music and learning, the Nordic equivalent to Oxford or Cambridge, Trondheim developed a rich cultural life, particular in the eighteenth century, which can still be admired through the many magnificent wooden buildings that dominates large parts of the city centre.