A 16TH Century house has been transformed into North Yorkshire's newest visitor attraction at a cost of more than £1m.

Thorpe Prebend House, on High Agnesgate in Ripon, will open its doors to the public on Saturday as the new interpretation centre for the city's ancient cathedral.

The building is the sole survivor of seven church houses that were once used by the cathedral's canons.

In centuries past it also provided accommodation for a succession of royal guests, including Mary Queen of Scots, Charles I and James I but its glory days were long gone and the building was almost derelict before the restoration project began.

The house has now been transformed into a visitor centre with more than 50 exhibits and interactive displays, charting the development of the cathedral and the city from the time of its earliest settlements to the 21st Century.

For £2, visitors will be able to see life-sized models of people and characters down the ages who have a connection with the city, from St Wilfrid to Lewis Carroll's fictional creations, and soldier poet Wilfrid Owen who was stationed nearby.

They will also be able to play on interactive displays, which help explain life in the city through the ages.

Since the project began six years ago it has been led by Canon Keith Punshon, who said it would play a major role in the city's future.

"Thorpe Prebend House will play an important part not only with our ministry of welcome to visitors and to school groups, but will also play its part in the economic regeneration of Ripon," he said.

"I hope many thousands of extra tourists will visit to hear the story of Ripon told in an exciting, innovative way, and to enjoy a house once owned by the rascal last Abbot of Fountains, Marmaduke Brad-ley, and visited by Kings."

Work to complete the refurbishment and to create the interactive exhibition has taken 18 months.

Grants for the work were received from the Heritage Lottery Fund, English Heritage, Yorkshire Forward, Harrogate Borough Council , the Charles and Elsie Sykes Trust and the Ripon Cathedral Chapter.

Work will continue to complete a Jacobean Garden and other exterior features to the timbered building.