Bath Abbey description and photos - Great Britain: Bath (Topic)

Bath Abbey description and photos - Great Britain: Bath. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The name in English is Bath Abbey.

Photo and description

The Abbey Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Bath, better known as Bath Abbey, is a magnificent Gothic temple, a masterpiece of perpendicular Gothic, one of the largest Gothic churches in western Britain.

There are legends that the church was founded by Saint David himself, but most historians are still inclined to believe that the founder should be considered King Osric, the ruler of the Kingdom of Hwiss, who in 675 gave Abbess Berthe a large plot of land near Bath for the establishment of a female monastery. The monastery was later transformed into a male monastery. The King of Mercia Offa built a "wondrous beauty" church on the site of a former pagan temple, but nothing is known for certain about this building. Edgar the Peaceful, The King of England was crowned at Bath Abbey with his wife Elfrida - and this is the first time a Queen of England has been crowned. Under Edgar, the abbey in Bath becomes Benedictine.

In 1090 the episcopal see was moved to Bath, and the church from. Peter becomes a cathedral. In this regard, the construction of a new large cathedral of Peter and Paul begins, but the construction is delayed and is completed only by 1156. Years of rivalry between Bath and nearby Wells ends with the episcopal see being transferred to Wells. The Cathedral in Bath collapses and falls into desolation, the modest abbey does not have enough funds to maintain such a large temple. In 1500, construction began on a relatively small church in the perpendicular Gothic style, and it ends a few years before the church reforms of George V. In subsequent years, the church is destroyed, and the reconstruction begins only by order of Elizabeth I, who ordered the establishment of a national fund for the restoration of the temple.

At the end of the 19th century, George Gilbert Scott carries out restoration of the cathedral and completes the fan vault in accordance with the original plan. Restoration work in the 20th and 21st centuries included in particular the complete cleaning of the building and the renovation of the old organ.

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Topic: Bath Abbey description and photos - Great Britain: Bath.