Despite the vandalism of Henry VIII's Dissolution, there are still hundreds of surviving monastic buildings, from forlorn fragments to majestic ruins such as Rievaulx, Lindisfarne and Tintern. Some cathedrals and abbeys were monastic foundations, and they still display the finest of Romanesque and medieval architecture and masonry.
Derry Brabb's superb photography is complemented by his text that examines the history of the monasteries; the great period of building in the eleventh and twelfth centuries; the Dissolution; the different monastic orders; and the abbeys, cathedrals and churches that once formed part of the monastic establishment.
