History of The Abbey and Cathedral
For more details on this topic, see list of abbots of St Albans Abbey.A memoria over the execution point and holding the remains of Alban existed at the site from the mid-300s (possibly earlier); Bede mentions a church and Gildas a shrine. Bishop Germanus of Auxerre visited in 429 and took a portion of the apparently still bloody earth away. The style of this structure is unknown; the 13th century chronicler Matthew Paris (see below) claimed that the Saxons destroyed the building in 586.
Read more about this topic: St Albans Cathedral
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“The Abbey always reminds me of that old toast, “Above lofty timbers, the walls around are bare, echoing to our laughter, as though the dead were there.””
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