Rievaulx Abbey
Rievaulx Abbey in the North York Moors is one of the finest ruined monasteries in Britain, a Cistercian abbey of exceptional scale and architectural quality set in the deep, wooded valley of the River Rye whose combination of the soaring Gothic choir walls surviving to remarkable height and the romantic landscape of the surrounding valley provides one of the most atmospheric and most beautiful of all English monastic ruins. English Heritage manages the site, and the adjacent Rievaulx Terrace, a National Trust landscape garden above the valley designed to provide framed views down into the abbey from theatrical perspectives, completes an experience of extraordinary quality. The abbey was founded in 1132 as the first Cistercian house in the north of England, established by a group of monks from the great Cistercian mother house of Clairvaux in France who chose the remote Rye valley for its combination of seclusion, water supply and building stone. Under Aelred, who was abbot from 1147 to 1167 and became one of the most celebrated spiritual writers of the medieval church, the community grew to over 140 monks and 500 lay brothers, one of the largest Cistercian houses in Europe and a centre of spiritual and intellectual life of international reputation. The remaining fabric reflects the enormous investment in building that the community's prosperity in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries sustained. The choir and presbytery of the abbey church, the most complete section of the ruins, rise to magnificent height in the Early English Gothic style and provide walls and piers of exceptional quality whose survival communicates the scale of the original building with considerable power. The chapter house, the refectory undercroft and the infirmary add further dimension to a site of great architectural richness.