URPoint Details
Disabled car park adjacent; accessible to all toilets.
Once the wealthiest Welsh medieval monastery, Tintern remains the best preserved abbey in Wales. The grandeur of its great church and above all its setting in the wooded Wye Valley, rank it among Britain's most beautiful historic sites. The abbey owes its rural setting to the white-robed Cistercian monks, whose austere rule dictate that they settle on remote places. Its grandeur it owes largely to Roger Bigod, Lord of nearby Chepstow castle who financed the rebuilding of its church in the late 13th century.
An outstanding example of the elaborate 'decorated' style of Gothic architecture, this church still stands almost complete to roof level, from its magnificent west front to its great east window. Tintern's 'romantic' ruins and unspoilt scenery has attracted visitors since the later 18th century.
Artists like Turner, sketched and painted here while poet Wordsworth drew inspiration from the surrounding woodland.
- Type:
- Landmark