We visited St David's Cathedral yesterday, in the Welsh City of the same name. The "City" is the smallest in the UK, and is actually tiny - more about that in another post.
The Cathedral complex dominates the town, and its clear to see that the cathedral came first, with the town growing up around it.
Building started in 1131 and it took over 100 years to complete - not too bad for those days when you see the size of it.
Its quite large inside, which is to be expected, but when you see the size of the town ("city") its hard to imagine that the cathedral would ever get full for a service, because there can be that many people in the town !
The cathedral is stunning inside, with lots of religious artifacts and art, wherever you look.
The marble tomb above was quite interesting. The workmanship was quite impressive, and quite rarely for the UK, the inscription was in Greek. I cant recall seeing Greek in a British cathedral before.
The inner area above was stunning. The carvings on the benches were very intricate. The lovely tiled flooring could be seen throughout, and the needle work on the bench cushions was very impressive. Every single thing in this area was crafted down to minute detail.
Above is one of the carvings from the seats at the back. I think its green man - which is a common thing found in England and Wales - I think its actually a pagan symbol. Its common to find them in old carvings, whether stone or wood, in buildings like this.
And above is an older tomb of a knight. His feet are resting on his beloved dog ! He is missing his sword and hands, but otherwise he is doing not too bad after all these hundreds of years !
The site itself was actually founded by St David back in the 6th century. He died in 589 - so its an incredibly old site. It will be one of the earliest Christian sites in the UK.
Some of the ceiling work was amazing - image how good the pic above would look if I actually managed to take it square-on !
There was also a lovely enclosed garden with a cloister at the back This appears to be been more recently restored (within the last few decades), with the wooden part added. There was a lovely cafe in the upper floor, where we stopped for some tea and cake !
I just love the arches in the main construction - the arches give strength to the structure, and are needed to support the weight of the upper sections of the cathedral. They didnt have steel beams to do the job back in those days !
The pic above gives a little context to the remoteness of the cathedral. Its right n the south west corner of wales. Behind it are green fields, then the cliffs overlook the Atlantic Ocean.
We really did enjoy the visit. There is a ton to see there, including the ruined Bishop's Palace next door - which I'll cover in another post. Plus the "city" was really worth a look as well.
I'd highly recommend this to anyone visiting the area. We loved it !