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St Albans
Abbey marks the place of execution in AD209 of Alban - Britain's first
Christian martyr.
It is said
that Alban was a Roman citizen and that during a period when Christians
were being persecuted, he gave shelter to a man who has been called Amphibalus.
Whilst he stayed with him, Alban was converted to Christianity. Amphibalus
got away and Alban was arrested.
After a long
trial, where he refused to give up his faith, he was beheaded and it is
believed that the execution took place on the hill close to where the
Abbey is now.
The Abbey
was founded in 792 by Offa of Mercia on the hilltop site where Alban's
martyrdom and burial had already been marked by a shrine for over 500
years. It was one of England's greatest abbeys until the dissolution of
the monasteries in the 16th century after which it fell into disrepair
until its restoration at the end of the 19th century, becoming a cathedral
in 1877.
The church
you see today is the result of refoundation and rebuilding in 1077-88
shortly after the Norman Conquest.
Persecution
Alban was thought to have been martyred under the persecution of Septimius
Severus and, if other places are anything to go by, he would've had a
burial which became a martyrium - a little chapel with his body in it.
It is said
that Alban went up a hill to his execution, and the Abbey marks the spot
of his execution, but his shrine in the Abbey doesn't lie on top of his
burial.
The original
shrine hasn't been found yet, although it's thought that it might be in
the St Michaels area as there's evidence of the Romans there too, not
just re-used bricks but late Roman burials. Presumably one of these could
have been the shrine of Alban. Wherever he was originally buried, he could
have been moved.
Although
there was probably some kind of building at the site, King Offa is credited
with building the first Benedictine Monastery on the site in the 790s,
before the Normans arrived, and not liking what they saw, pulled it down
and rebuilt the whole thing in the Romanesque, Norman style.
Tower
The tower is the main thing that's survived. Now you can see the Roman
bricks but evidence suggests that the bricks were plastered over and it
would have looked like a masonry building.
The West
end has been extended in almost every period of English architecture.
Bits were always being added and on occasion the money ran out. They never
finished converting the Norman knave, but this is probably a good thing!
The head
of the Abbey was made the premier abbot of England in 1154. With St Albans
being so conveniently near to London, its Abbot was an important political
figure and throughout the middle ages the Abbey was often used for negotiations
between the King and his warring barons - a kind of ACAS headquarters
of its day.
For Kings
Stephen, John and Edward II the abbot was a kind of neutral person who
tried to sort things out, so the Abbey would have been a pretty impressive
place, and far more than just the building you see today.
Also when
Richard I was captured, his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine had a meeting
in the Chapter House to organise his ransom money, so the building would
have to have been fit for a Queen.
Lavish
There was a lot of money spent on entertaining and lavish feasts were
commonplace.
There would
have been areas of the complex where you weren't allowed to go because
the monks were there but the rest of it would have been very busy. It
was an important monastary, a kind of micro settlement with many comings
and goings from various tenants who would come to pay their dues to the
abbot.
St Albans
owned land in Hertfordshire, London and even Norfolk & Tynemouth so
there would have been many visitors.
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