Today
Margam Abbey now consists of the intact nave and impressive surrounding ruins. Those ruins not belonging to the church are now owned by the County Council. These remains, including the unusually large twelve-sided chapter house, dating from the 13th century, stand within 840 acre (3.4 km²) Margam Country Park, close to Margam Castle.
On a hill overlooking the abbey stand the ruins of an outlying monastery building, Capel Mair ar y Bryn ("the chapel of St Mary on the hill"). The purpose of this building is thought to have been to allow members of the monastic community who were engaged in the keeping of flocks to fulfil their devotional obligations without having to return to the main church.
Two different types of monks lived there and were both equally important in the success of Margam Abbey. First, there was the Cistercian monks, these were the more educated ones - they proved this by writing a book. Secondly there were the lay monks which made the abbey rich by trading in the local area and abroad. They were native Welsh monks and farmers; they traded sheep and the things they farmed.
Read more about this topic: Margam Abbey
Famous quotes containing the word today:
“Boundless in your charity, but shrewd and cautious as a lender, you delight all those today whom you made beggars the day before.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“A new world is not made simply by trying to forget the old. A new world is made with a new spirit, with new values. Our world may have begun that way, but today it is caricatural. Our world is a world of things.... What we dread most, in the face of the impending débâcle, is that we shall be obliged to give up our gewgaws, our gadgets, all the little comforts that have made us so uncomfortable.... We are not peaceful souls; we are smug, timid, queasy and quakey.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“Experiment is necessary in establishing an academy, but certain principles must apply to this business of art as to any other business which affects the artis tic sense of the community. Great art speaks a language which every intelligent person can understand. The people who call themselves modernists today speak a different language.”
—Robert Menzies (1894–1978)