St Asaph's - Medieval Cathedral - Saint Asaph, Denbighshire, Wales - Medieval Churches on Waymarking.com

Saint Asaph Cathedral (Eglwys Gadeiriol Llanelwy) the home of the William Morgan Bible, a historic link with Welsh culture and literature. The Cathedral is the Mother Church of the Diocese of St Asaph, one of the six dioceses of the Church of Wales.

The cathedral dates back to 560 AD, which means worship has taken place at this site for over 1,400 years.

The current cathedral building dates from the 13th century, and is the smallest ancient Cathedral in Great Britain.

"Llanelwy is the Welsh name for the place called St Asaph. It means the sacred religious enclosure on the banks of the River Elwy. It is impossible to give an historically accurate account of the beginnings of Christianity in the early settlement at Llanelwy. Legend and tradition are confusingly mixed and there is no archaeological evidence or written record before the twelfth century. The legend of the founding of the church and monastery between the year c.560 and c.573 is to be found in ‘The life of St Kentigern’ written by Jocelyn, a monk of Furness Abbey c.1180. St Kentigern was the bishop of Strathclyde; he was driven into exile and founded a monastery at Llanelwy where he remained until his return to Scotland in 573. There are no local commemorations to Kentigern. St Asaph replaced him as abbot-bishop when he died in 596.
The site chosen at Llanelwy was in a perilous position being on the ‘war path’ of the Welsh Princes and English Kings. How much destruction the new building suffered in the thirteenth century is not known. Some of the early building work begun by bishop Hugh (1235-40) has survived in the gables and chamfered buttresses on the west front, the south west corner buttresses, and the walls of the early choir." Adapted from: (visit link)

Street address of Church:
High Street, Saint Asaph, Denbighshire (former Clwyd) LL17 0RD.

More reading on Medieval Wales: (visit link)

Building Materials: Stone

Visit Instructions:
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Date Logged Log User Rating   06/07/2015 veritas vita visited it