Sanctuary
by Stephanie Grant
Title
Sanctuary
Artist
Stephanie Grant
Medium
Digital Art - Digital / Photography
Description
Composite, digitally enhanced, photograph taken at the ruins of Tintern Abbey.
History of Tintern Abbey
Just three decades after the birth of the Cistercian order, land was granted and an abbey was founded at Tintern in 1131 by the Anglo-Norman lord of Chepstow, Walter fitz Richard of Clare. The initial community of Cisterican monks arrived at Tintern from an influential mother house of l'Aumône, in north-central France.
Worked by a growing army of lay brothers, the Tintern estates were organized around characteristic Cistercian farms known as granges. At first, the monks probably lived and worshipped in a temporary arrangement of wooden buildings, though within a few decades of their arrival they had erected a modest stone church and associated cloister ranges.
Further growth of the community led to an expansion of the monastic buildings during the first half of the 13th century. Tintern's greatest glory, the superb Gothic church which still dominates the landscape, was begun in 1269. It was consecrated in 1301 in the presence of the patron, Roger Bigod, fifth earl of Norfolk.
The later Middle Ages witnessed Tintern Abbey's departure from early Cistercian ideals, exacerbated by the impact of the Black Plague (1348-49) and by the effects of a Welsh uprising in 1400-15. Nevertheless, monastic life at Tintern continued to flourish, with further limited building programs carried out until the Reformation. In 1326 King Edward II visited Tintern and spent two nights there.
Tintern Abbey was surrendered to King Henry VIII's visitors on September 3, 1536, during the first round in Henry's suppression of monasteries. Thus ended the simple way of life that had been pursued at Tintern for 400 years.
A few months later, the buildings and local possessions were granted to Henry Somerset, earl of Worcester. He sold lead from the roof and began to lease out parts of the site. Soon the abbey area was crowded with cottages and early industrial buildings.
Tintern lay forgotten until the late 18th century, when the ruins were discovered by Romantic artists and poets in search of the "Sublime" and "Picturesque." The railway brought still more tourists after 1876, and in 1901 the site was rescued when it was purchased by the Crown. Major conservation works were carried out between 1901 and 1928, which included removing the ivy considered so romantic by the early tourists
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August 22nd, 2014
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