The ruins of Tintern Abbey, in Tintern, Monmouthshire, Wales
Tintern Abbey, founded in 1131, was the first Cistercian foundation in Wales, and, indeed, only the second in the British Isles. The house prospered, and in 1269 the community embarked on the construction of a new, much larger, abbey church, whose walls survive to this day. The embellishment of the church and other abbey buildings seem to have continued into the middle of the 14th c., and although no major works appear to have taken place after then, in 1535 its wealth was assessed at £192, which made it the wealthiest monastery in Wales. Nevertheless, that still fell just short of the £200 benchmark set out in the 1536 act dissolving the lesser houses, and it was duly suppressed in the September of that year. However, despite being stripped bare, the walls of the abbey church survived the next two hundred years remarkably well, until in the 18th c. the ruins were discovered by the new Romantic Movement, and became popular with visitors. The subject of poems by William Wordsworth and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and paintings by Turner, in 1901 the ruins passed from the Somerset family, who had owned the abbey since the dissolution, to the Ministry of Works, and they are now in the care of Cadw.
Size: 4287px × 2848px
Location: Tidenham, Gloucestershire, England
Photo credit: © David Knighton / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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