Llandaff Cathedral

The Cathedral retains fine medieval work, despite its history of ruin and reconstruction. The first stone church survives only in two inscribed slabs in the W wall. In the S presbytery aisle is preserved a Celtic cross, a relic of the pre-Norman religious community. Bishop Urban (1107-33) began the present building. To him and to his immediate successors are owed the fine round arch behind the high altar, and the N and S doors. There followed the nave in two stages, the W front (about 1220), S tower and chapter house. The Lady chapel is late 13th century, the N (or "Jasper") tower, Tudor.
    After the Reformation the Cathedral fell into decline; in the 18th century John Wood attempted a classical remodeling. The structure was restored by John Prichard and his partner Seddon, aided and abetted by Rossetti, beginning in the 1840s, and culminating with the rebuilding of the SW tower (1867-9). In 1941 a landmine seriously damaged the nave and south aisle. Post war restoration was undertaken by the fine and sensitive architect, George Pace, who added the St David chapel and reconstructed the nave in a manner that combined 20th century aspirations with a sensitivity to the Gothic legacy. His are the concrete parabolic arches supporting an organ case on which is set Epstein's Christ in majesty.
    Associated with the Cathedral on the green are the remnants of a 13th-century bell tower, a nearby lych gate by Prichard and the Preaching Cross, which retains a 13th-century shaft. This was the traditional site of Archbishop Baldwin of Canterbury's appeal to the Norman-French and Welsh to join the Third Crusade in 1188.
   At the E end of the Green is the Old Bishop's Palace, a castellated house probably constructed by Bishop William de Braose after 1266. In the 15th century the Bishops moved to Mathern in Gwent, but the building still looks intact on Speed's map of 1610. The enclosing wall and corner towers remain today, together with the gatehouse, which shares features with Caerphilly Castle. On the wall to the L of the entrance can be traced the sloping roof of the Bush Inn, which stood against the still-inhabited gatehouse in the 18th century. The herb garden now established within the walls is open to the public much of the year.

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