About

Strata Florida Abbey or Ystrad Fflur as local people know it, was built in 1164 and is the final resting place for generations of medieval Welsh princes.

The site of the Abbey on meadows beside the banks of the river Teifi, has been a sacred valley for over four thousand years and there is evidence of a long history of people using the land and settling on the site, going back to 2500-2000 B.C.  At the head of the Glasffrwyd valley, at Blaenglasffrwd, is a large complex of monuments dating from the early Bronze Age or even the Late Neolithic period.

The abbey of Strata Florida – Latin for ‘Vale of Flowers’ ha much to captivate at this evocative, historically important site. Beautiful atmospheric settings. Memorials to the Welsh Princes. On-site visitor centre and exhibition.The great Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym is said to be buried under a yew in the churchyard. 

It was established by white-robed Cistercian monks as part of a movement that spread across the whole of western Europe in the early Middle Ages. Soon it became the most famous church in Wales after St Davids –­ a place of pilgrimage and a linchpin of Welsh culture.

There are unmistakable echoes of greatness among the ruins. The carved west doorway into the abbey offers an epic view down the nave to where the high altar once stood.

You can still see some of the incredible decorated tiles that would have covered the floors of the church. Griffins, birds and fleurs-de-lis surround the enigmatic ‘Man with the Mirror’. This 14th-century figure dressed in a doublet and close-fitting hood is reckoned to be a symbol of vanity.