Leicester's Church

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The north facade of Leicester's Church

Leicester's Church is an unfinished church in the northern Welsh town of Denbigh . The building, begun in 1578 on the orders of Robert Dudley , Earl of Leicester and favorite of Queen Elizabeth I , was never completed due to lack of funds and is now a Grade I listed ruin .

The interior of the planned hall church is 52 meters long and 22 meters wide. The central nave , comprising ten bays , was 8.20 meters wide and was delimited by Tuscan columns alternating in pairs and individually . The entire north facade with nine window openings is still in full height, while only low wall remains of the west wall and part of the east wall have been preserved. Apart from the corner stones made of sandstone and a simple frieze under the window openings, the exterior of the building is simple and unadorned. In contrast to the outer walls, there are no remains of the interior of the church.

With the construction of Leicester's Church, which was originally to be dedicated as St David's Church to St. David of Menevia , Dudley wanted to replace St Hilary's Chapel , which is about 60 meters away . The project was the only major new church building in Britain during the Elizabethan Age ; Leicester's Church is also the first Protestant church to be built on British soil. The vicar of the unfinished church was William Morgan , who later became Bishop of Llandaff and St Asaph and in 1588 the first translator of the Bible into Welsh. Morgan held the office as a sinecure .

It is believed that with the construction of the largest church building in Britain at the time, Dudley wanted to replace the Cathedral of St Asaph , located 8.5 kilometers to the north, as the bishopric and transfer the diocese of St Asaph to Denbigh.

In 1584, six years after construction began, construction was suspended due to financial difficulties and Leicester's Church was left in a semi-finished state. The historian Thomas Pennant gives the exact reason for the demolition of Dudley's conflicts with the local population and the fact that the Earl of Essex had not repaid a loan taken out to the citizens of Denbigh.

In October 1950 the church was added to the British List of Monuments , where it is classified as a "building of exceptional importance" (Grade I) . Today Leicester's Church is administered by the Cadw Monument Conservation Agency ; the interior of the church is not open to the public.

literature

  • LAS Butler: Denbigh Castle, Denbigh Town Walls, Lord Leicester's Church, St Hilary's Chapel, Denbigh Friary. Cadw, 1990, revised edition 2007, ISBN 978-1-85760-238-8 , pp. 42–43.

Web links

Commons : Leicester's Church  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Leicester's Church (Remains), Denbigh . British Listed Buildings. Retrieved January 30, 2011.

Coordinates: 53 ° 10 ′ 55.9 "  N , 3 ° 25 ′ 8"  W.