TINTERN PARVA & ABBEY

 Tintern Parva is a small village, standing on the Banks of the River Wye, somewhere between Monmouth and Chepstow. 

It's very picturesque, but not really known for anything other than Tintern Abbey.

The Cistercian abbey of Tintern is one of the greatest monastic ruins of Wales. It was only the second Cistercian foundation in Britain, and the first in Wales, and was founded on 9 May 1131 by Walter de Clare, lord of Chepstow.

Standing in a wooded vale on the banks of the River Wye, its a romantic and calm place.

The  Cistercian monks, were happy to make do with timber buildings at first. Abbot Henry, a reformed robber, was better known for his habit of crying at the altar than for his architectural ambitions.

A simple stone church and cloisters came later. But then, thanks to the patronage of wealthy Marcher lords, the white-robed monks began to think bigger. In 1269 they began to build a new abbey church and didn’t stop until they’d created one of the masterpieces of British Gothic architecture. The great west front with its seven lancet window and the soaring arches of the nave still take the breath away.

So grateful were the monks to their powerful patron Roger Bigod that they were still handing out alms on his behalf in 1535. But by then King Henry VIIIs English Reformation was well underway. Only a year later Tintern surrendered in the first round of the dissolution of the monasteries, and the great abbey began slowly to turn into a majestic ruin.

(below) the West window

(below) the North transept with the monks' day room in front

(below) the Great East Window

Tintern was much loved by J.M.W. Turner, and it is partly due to his paintings and those of the other Romantic artists in the late 18th./early 19th. century, that Tintern became such a tourist attraction.