Photo: Travel: England: Bath

Bath Abbey, Bath, Somerset

Bath Abbey used to be a cathedral but is now a parish church (although the bishop, whose cathedra is at Wells, does have a special throne in the presbytery). The present building is actually smaller than the original Norman cathedral it replaced and was mostly rebuilt by Bishop Oliver King in the 16th century. He is said to have had a dream of angels climbing up and tumbling down Jacob's ladder, which explains the rather unusual West Front of the church. The other must-see is the fan vaulted ceiling by the Vertue brothers who were the master masons of King Henry VII and were responsible for the even more famous ceiling in the king's chapel at Westminster. The vaulting over the nave is a faithful Victorian copy of the Tudor work but the portion above the chancel is original.

The church is very spacious and appears very light for two reasons. First, it was recently restored and actually looks spanking new (which I did not like). Second, there is no triforium and the clerestory windows stretch all the way down to the arcade, creating a wall of glass. In fact, about 80% of the walls are windows, few of them stained. The great west window has scenes from the Old Testament, and the greate east window has scenes from the life of Christ. Both are Victorian although the east window was damaged during WWII and restored afterwards. Aside from the nice Perpendicular Chantry Chapel for Prior Birde and the impressive tomb to Bishop Montagu in the nave, there isn't really all that much to see in the church unless one is interested in funeral monuments which copiously line the walls in the aisles.

A decent church building that would not fare well in comparison to the mighty cathedrals, Bath Abbey is still worth the visit. The exterior is quite plain except for the unforgettable West Front. The modest guide book is fairly informative too.

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