Tintern Abbey was the second foundation by the Cistercians in Britain and the first in Wales. Like all the abbeys of this order it was built in what would have been a remote location - in this case, the valley of the River Wye. The structure was founded in 1131. Its present, ruinous state came about through Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in 1536. The early proponents of the Romantic Movement were moved by its battered skeletal form alongside the river, overlooked on both sides by heavily wooded slopes.
photo © T. Boughen Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10
