St Brynach's Church (Nevern)
The St Brynach's Church is a medieval church in Pembrokeshire in Wales . It is located in a walled churchyard about 350 m north of the bridge over the Afon Nyfer in the small village of Nevern . The church is best known for the Nevern Cross , a Celtic high cross in the churchyard.
history
The church is dedicated to the Irish Saint Brynach , who is said to have built a first chapel here in the 5th century, and was on the old pilgrimage route to St Davids . Presumably after the Norman conquest in the 12th century , a new church was built, which was replaced by the current building in the 15th century. The west tower is from the previous building. In 1864 the church was restored by the London architect Robert Jewell Withers . The church is part of the Parish Nevern , a parish of the Diocese of St David's of the Church in Wales .
Building description
Exterior
The church is probably still built on the Norman floor plan and consists of a longitudinal nave with a short south aisle, a chapel in the north and an elongated choir in the east. The walls are made of quarry stone, the roof is covered with slate. The southern entrance porch was added during the restoration in 1864. The wide, low west tower has a crenellated wreath, sound hatches in the bell storey and a narrow stair tower on the north side.
inner space
The interior is plastered and has a wooden roof truss, the chancel, separated by a pointed choir arch , has a wooden barrel vault . The short south aisle has a two- bay rib vault , above which is a small chamber, to which a narrow staircase embedded in the masonry leads. The straight end of the choir in the east has a large tracery window that, like the other tracery windows, was renewed in the 19th century. The stained glass windows date from the 19th and 20th centuries. Inside the church there are several grave monuments from the 18th and 19th centuries, the other furnishings such as the baptismal font and the stone pulpit come from the restoration in 1864. In the walls of the south aisle, two old stones with early medieval inscriptions were discovered in 1906, which were reused in the construction of the church in the 15th century. The Maglocunus stone inside the church bears an inscription in Latin and Ogam . The other stone is a 10th century cross slab . Both inscriptions were discovered in 1906.
Nevern Cross and Vitalianus Stone
In the churchyard, which is lined with old yew and cypress trees, there is the Nevern Cross, an almost 4 m high Celtic cross from the 10th or 11th century, which is comparable to the cross from Carew of about the same age . The cross is made of hard dolerite and consists of two parts, the shaft with a diamond pattern and an attached wheel cross . The shaft has the Latin inscription H / AN / .EH on the front, the meaning of which is unclear, and on the back the inscription DNS, which is interpreted as an abbreviation for Dominus.
Nearby is the smaller early Christian Vitalianus stone , which dates from the 5th or early 6th century. It has a Latin inscription that describes it as the stone of Vitalianus Emereto , and another inscription on Ogam reads FITALIANI.
literature
- Homer Sykes: Mysterious Britain - Fact and Folklore George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd. 1993 ISBN 0-297-83196-8 p. 121
Web links
- British Listed Buildings: Church of St Brynarch, Nevern
- Britain Express: Nevern, St Brynach Church
- Castles of Wales: The Nevern Cross & Church (Saint Brynach)
Individual evidence
- ^ Stained Glass in Wales: Church of St Brynach, Nevern, Pembrokeshire. Retrieved October 8, 2014 .
Coordinates: 52 ° 1 ′ 31.7 ″ N , 4 ° 47 ′ 42.5 ″ W.