ST. CANICE'S CATHEDRAL
From Atlas and Cyclopedia of Ireland (1900)
« County Kildare | Book Contents | King's County (Offaly) »
Description of County Kilkenny | St. Canice's | St. Kiernan's College | Ruins at Kells | Celtic Cross, Kells | Kilkenny Map
ST. CANICE'S CATHEDRAL.—This is one of the most imposing ecclesiastical structures in Ireland. Although among Irish churches, inferior in size only to Christ Church and St. Patrick's, Dublin, it possesses a lightness and grace rarely found in buildings of its capacity. Acording to Ware it was founded about the year 1180 by Bishop O'Dullany, who transferred the old see of Ossory from Aghadoe to Kilkenny, and was not completed until two centuries later. It is said to have been erected on the site of a building coeval with the introduction of Christianity into Ireland, and derives its name from Canice or Canicus, a holy man, who built a cell near the spot. The church is cruciform in shape, and is 226 feet in length and 123 feet in breadth. In architecture and ornamentation it is a splendid type of mediaeval art; but bears the marks of the iconoclastic Cromwellians in 1650. It has been in a great measure restored. Within a few feet of the church stands a round tower 108 feet high and 40 feet in circumference.
St. Canice's Cathedral
Description of County Kilkenny | St. Canice's | St. Kiernan's College | Ruins at Kells | Celtic Cross, Kells | Kilkenny Map