Christ Church Cathedral
Dublin
Christ Church Cathedral is the oldest cathedral in Dublin, on Christchurch Place. Founded around 1028, it was rebuilt in stone in the Middle Ages and restored in the 1800s.
A thousand years of history
The first church was founded around 1028 by Dúnán, the first bishop of Dublin. After 1170 the Normans rebuilt it in Romanesque style, and later in Gothic. Some parts from that time are still standing.
In 1395 the English king Richard II received the homage of the kings of the four Irish provinces here. In 1487 a boy, Lambert Simnel, was crowned here as King of England. He was an impostor!
A leaning wall
In 1562 the ceiling of the nave collapsed. Since then the north wall has leaned slightly outwards. The church stayed patched up for more than three hundred years.
Between 1871 and 1878 George Edmund Street rebuilt almost all of it. He added flying buttresses, stone arches that prop up the walls from outside. He also rebuilt the tower and built the covered bridge to the Synod Hall.
What is inside
The nave has high ceilings and a floor of medieval-style tiles. In the Synod Hall, linked by the bridge, there is now Dublinia, an exhibition about the medieval city. Here you can discover how the Vikings and merchants of that time lived.
