Ruins of Tintern Abbey

The ruins of Tintern Abbey (in Welsh Abaty Tyndyrn) are located in the valley of the River Wye in south Wales, close to the border with England. This Cistercian monastery (the first in Wales and the second oldest in Great Britain) was founded in 1131 and dissolved in 1536 on the orders of Henry VIII (1491–1547). Thereafter, the monastery fell to ruin. In the late-18th and early-19th century, it became an attraction for Romantic writers such as William Wordsworth (1770–1850) and artists such as William Turner (1775–1851).

Tintern Abbey and Courtyard, colour photograph, 2011, photographer: Saffron Blaze; image source: Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tintern_Abbey_and_Courtyard.jpg, © Saffron Blaze via http://www.mackenzie.co/.