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Byland Abbey was one of the great Cistercian monasteries, housing over 200 monks and lay brothers in its heyday. Today it is a romantic ruin. The abbey church and the cloister was one of the largest and impressive in Europe. The abbey was surrendered to the Crown in 1538 with all its property, and the remaining 24 monks and the prior were all given pensions. A year later the destruction of the abbey buildings began, a process that continued until the eighteenth century. This picture was taken at sunrise on an October day in 2004. |
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