The New Student's Reference Work/Ely

Ely, a town in Cambridgeshire, England. Here, in 673, Saint Etheldreda founded a mixed monastery, which, burned in 870 by the Danes, was refounded in 970 as a Benedictine abbey. In 1083 the first Norman abbot laid the foundation of the present church, which was made a cathedral in 1109, and, as we see it to-day, is one of the finest shrines in Christendom. Built in the form of a cross, it offers examples of all styles of Gothic architecture and is a growth of more than four centuries. Population of Ely, 9,000.