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Whitby Abbey was founded as a monastery in 657 AD by the Anglo-Saxon era King of Northumbria, Oswy (Oswiu) as Streoneshalh (the older name for Whitby). It later became a Benedictine abbey before its possessions were confiscated by the crown during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII. Though the abbey church was stripped and fell into ruin, it remained a prominent landmark for sailors and helped inspire Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula (Dracula came ashore there as a creature resembling a large dog and proceeded to climb the 199 steps which lead up to the ruins). The ruins are now owned and maintained by English Heritage.