Melrose Abbey (Melrose)

 ruins, monastery, Order of Cistercians, interesting place, catholicism

a Cistercian abbey in the Borders region of Scotland, founded in 1136 and now in picturesque ruins. It is said to enshrine the heart of Robert the Bruce.The present Melrose Abbey was founded by king David of Scotland in 1136, and is supposed to have been built in ten years. The church of the convent was dedicated to St. Mary on the 28th of July, 1146. It was the mother church of the Roman Catholic Cistercian order in Scotland. The white-robed monks were brought from Rievaulx Abbey, in Yorkshire, and they soon superseded the order of the Benedictines.In 1544, King Henry VIII had Melrose Abbey torched, and it never fully recovered. By 1560, the abbey had ceased to function. The abbey's holdings were given up in 1561. Its carvings were destroyed by a Protestant mob following the deposition of Mary, Queen of Scots. Finally, as has happened with many priceless works of antiquity, much of the abbey was carted off by locals for use in building material.

www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/propertyresults/propertyov...

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