Brecon Cathedral

Brecon Cathedral stands on a hill above the confluence of the Honddu and Usk rivers, just a short walk from the centre of the market town of Brecon. The site has been a place of Christian worship since Norman times, when a Benedictine priory was founded here around 1093 by Bernard de Neufmarché. The present church, largely rebuilt in the 13th and 14th centuries, served as the priory church until the Dissolution and then as the parish church of St John the Evangelist, before being raised to cathedral status in 1923 when the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon was created.

Inside, visitors find a calm, mostly Early English interior with a fine vaulted chancel, a Norman font carved with grotesque heads, and the cresset stone, a rare medieval lamp-holder with thirty hollows for oil wicks. The cathedral also houses regimental memorials linked to the historic Welsh regiments based in Brecon, and a series of stained glass windows that trace the long history of the building.

The surrounding precinct is unusually complete, with the former Canonry, tithe barn and Deanery still standing. The tithe barn now houses the Cathedral Heritage Centre and a tearoom, while the wooded grounds drop down towards the river and offer easy walks back into town past Brecon Castle.