Tintern Abbey, snow, Chepstow, Monmouthshire, south Wales
Tintern's crowning glory, its great church, was built between 1269 and 1301. It stands today much as it did then, apart from it's lack of a roof, window glass and internal divisions. Although not nearly as long as the great Cistercian abbey churches at Fountains and Rievaulx, its completeness makes it impressive. It has a simple cruciform plan, with an aisled nave, transepts each with two chapels, and a square-ended aisled chancel. Cistercian rule and liturgy dictated the internal divisions, which have disappeared; the aisles were all walled off, and three cross-walls divided the body of the church into two main sections - the nave, reserved for the lay brothers, and the choir and presbytery at the east end for the choir monks. Stubs of the aisle walls can be seen against the piers. Aesthetically today's simplicity may appear more pleasing then the original clutter; this was certainly the motive for the Victorian removal of the main cross-wall or pulpitum. The internal wall surfaces are articulated into bays divided by clustered columns, above which are triple vaulting shafts which rise up to the springing of the rib vaulting, none of which remains.
Tintern Abbey, snow, Chepstow, Monmouthshire, south Wales
Tintern's crowning glory, its great church, was built between 1269 and 1301. It stands today much as it did then, apart from it's lack of a roof, window glass and internal divisions. Although not nearly as long as the great Cistercian abbey churches at Fountains and Rievaulx, its completeness makes it impressive. It has a simple cruciform plan, with an aisled nave, transepts each with two chapels, and a square-ended aisled chancel. Cistercian rule and liturgy dictated the internal divisions, which have disappeared; the aisles were all walled off, and three cross-walls divided the body of the church into two main sections - the nave, reserved for the lay brothers, and the choir and presbytery at the east end for the choir monks. Stubs of the aisle walls can be seen against the piers. Aesthetically today's simplicity may appear more pleasing then the original clutter; this was certainly the motive for the Victorian removal of the main cross-wall or pulpitum. The internal wall surfaces are articulated into bays divided by clustered columns, above which are triple vaulting shafts which rise up to the springing of the rib vaulting, none of which remains.