Ely Cathedral, Ely, Cambridgeshire
A double religious house was founded on the present site by Etheldreda, a daughter of Anna, King of East Anglia, in 673. The monastery was laid waste by the Danes in 870, but 8 monks are said to have returned and founded a scular college, (minster). It was refounded by Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, as a Benedictine abbey in 970, and dedicated to St Peter and the Blessed Virgin by Dunstan in 974. The building of the present church and monastic buildings was begun under Simeon, the first Norman abbot, in 1083, and was virtually completed in its present form by 1350 after which no further major building took place. The monastery was dissolved on 18th November 1539, and the dedication of the Cathedral was changed to the Holy and Undivided Trinity.
Location
Cambridgeshire ElyPeriod
Medieval (Middle Ages) (1066 - 1484)Themes
