The Milky Way over Wales UK: On a cold clear and frosty night, with temperatures dropping to minus 5º celsius, the Milky Way is clearly seen as a thick band of stars across the skies above the arch shaped ruins of the medieval Strata Florida (Ystrad Fflur) Cistercian abbey in Pontrhydfendigaid, Ceredigion, mid Wales photo © keith morris/Alamy Live News
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keith morris / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
HG0WH2File size:
17.2 MB (1.4 MB Compressed download)Releases:
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2000 x 3000 px | 16.9 x 25.4 cm | 6.7 x 10 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
2 January 2017Location:
Strata Florida Abbey, United KingdomMore information:
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Strata Florida Abbey (Abaty Ystrad Fflur) is a former Cistercian abbey situated just outside Pontrhydfendigaid, near Tregaron, and was originally founded in 1164. The name Strata Florida is a corruption of the Welsh Ystrad Fflur, meaning Valley of (the river of) Flowers. Ystrad corrupts into Strata, while Fflur (flowers) is the name of the nearby river. There is a little confusion over the actual founding of the monastery. It was founded by a group of monks from Whitland Abbey, at a time of very fast expansion of the Cistercians, the White Monks. Building actually began on a different site on the banks of the Afon Fflur (from which the present Abbey takes its name), a short distance from the present site. Currently farm land, there are stories that huge stones were unearthed on the original site, known as Hen Fynachlog (the Old Monastery), though how true this is has yet to be formally investigated. Overall, it is considered that the Abbey was founded around 1164 A.D. thanks to the patronage of the Lord Rhys, which is why many of his descendants were buried there. In 1184, a further charter was issued by Lord Rhys re-affirming Strata Florida as a monastery under the patronage of Deheubarth. Strata Florida was not excused from the wrath of Henry VIII, and the monastery was dissolved in the 1540s by the church commissioners. The refectory and dormitory were rebuilt into a gentry house, now known as Ty Abaty, which was owned by a number of families, including the Steadmans and the Powells of Nanteos. Sir John Vaughan, of Trawsgoed, acquired from Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex much of the former monastic lands of the Cistercian abbey at Strata Florida. The monastery buildings themselves were largely demolished, with the stone going to be recycled in surrounding buildings, such as potentially the great barn complex by Ty Abaty. A complex site, it is still unknown what buildings were contemporary with the monastery and repaired with stone plundered from other Monas