Strata Florida Abbey (in Welsh: Abaty Ystrad Fflur) is a former Cistercian abbey situated just outside Pontrhydfendigaid, near Tregaron in the county of Ceredigion, Wales. There had been an abbey in the area since 1164 when the Norman lord Robert fitz Stephen established a daughter house of the great Cistercian abbey at Whitland. In 1166 the Welsh prince of south Wales Rhys ap Gruffydd, conquered Norman holdings in Ceredigion and took control of the area and the Abbey. In 1184 he moved the Abbey to its present location and it grew in importance to become the most important religious establishment in Wales, becoming the burial place for the Welsh royal houses. The Abbey held huge portions of land stretching across the length of the Cambrian Mountains into Powys and Carmarthenshire. Today only the ruins survive including the graves of at least seven Welsh Princes and the now famous richly decorated round-headed west nave of the church. This justly celebrated doorway was originally flanked by a pair of lancet windows, but only one now survives.
Photo taken November 2007.
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