St. David's Cathedral

The style of architecture of St. Davids is mixed with both Romanesque architecture and English Gothic architecture.  Buildings have collapsed or been destroyed ad later replaced. The ground on which is was built in uneven and shifting. One architect hired to rebuild produced substandard work result in more collapse. Correction of his errors took another 100 years. The cathedral suffered the pains of disestablishment in 1920, as did the whole Church in Wales. In the 1950s The cathedral began to have life again and the famous Welsh Youth Pilgrimages to St Davids (Cymry'r Groes) led many to a life of service in the church and provided the Church in Wales with inspired clergy for a decade following. In 1981, Charles, Prince of Wales, visited to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the consecration of the cathedral; and on Maundy Thursday 1982, Queen Elizabeth II distributed the Royal Maundy at the cathedral. This was the first occasion that the ceremony had taken place outside England. In 1989–90, the 1,400th anniversary of the death of St David was presided over by the Archbishop of Wales, George Noakes, who was also diocesan Bishop of St Davids. 

St Davids Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral situated in St Davids, Britain's smallest city, in the county of Pembrokeshire, near the most westerly point of Wales. The monastic community was founded by Saint David, Abbot of Menevia, who died in 589. Over the ensuring years the area was raided and pillaged by Vikings who destroyed all the buildings.. In 1115, with the area under Norman control, King Henry I of England began construction of a new cathedral. In 1123, St Davids, was a center of pilgrimage for the Western world; the Pope decreed that "Two pilgrimages to St Davids is equal to one to Rome, and three pilgrimages to one to Jerusalem". The new cathedral was quickly constructed. Henry II of England's visit in 1171 saw the following of David increase and the need for a larger cathedral. The present cathedral was begun in 1181 and completed not long after.