After the Norman Conquest, John of Tours—Bishop of Bath—built a church worthy of its new status as a cathedral. It was so big that the present church could have been contained in its nave. Today’s structure dates from 1499 and was one of the last great churches to be built before the Reformation.
Bath abbey is an abbey in name only, since the Dissolution of the Monasteries brought the role of the abbey to an end in the 1530s.
The abbey is also known as “The Lntern of the West because of the effect of its 52 windows, which occupy 80% of the wall space, flooding the interior with light.”