The Abbey Church of St Peter and St Paul in Bath, more commonly known as Bath Abbey, is a magnificent Gothic church, a masterpiece of Perpendicular Gothic, and one of the largest Gothic churches in the west of Britain.
There are legends that the church was founded by Saint David himself, but most historians are still inclined to believe that the founder should be considered King Osric, ruler of the kingdom of Hwisse, who in 675 gave Abbess Bertha a large plot of land near Bath to establish a nunnery there. The monastery was later converted into a men's monastery. King Offa of Mercia built a church of "marvellous beauty" on the site of a former pagan temple, but nothing is known of this building. Edgar the Peaceable, King of England was crowned at Bath Abbey with his wife Elfrida - and this is the first time of a Queen of England being crowned. Under Edgar, the abbey at Bath becomes a Benedictine abbey.
In 1090 the episcopal cathedra was moved to Bath, and the church of St Peter's Church became the cathedral. In conjunction with this, construction begins on a new large cathedral of Peter and Paul, but construction is delayed and is not completed only by 1156. A long-running rivalry between Bath and nearby Wells ends with the episcopal cathedra being moved to Wells. The cathedral in Bath collapses and falls into disrepair, the modest abbey lacking the funds to maintain such a large church. In 1500, construction begins a relatively small church in the Perpendicular Gothic style, and it was completed a few years before George V's ecclesiastical reforms. In the following years the church deteriorates, and reconstruction only begins by order of Elizabeth I, who ordered the establishment of a national fund to restore the church.
In the late 19th century, George Gilbert Scott restores the cathedral and completes the fan vault according to the original plan. Restoration Work in the 20th and 21st centuries included, among other things, a complete cleaning of the building and the repair of the ancient organ.
