Qualla: St Davids https://qualla.com/st-davids en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: St Davids https://qualla.com/st-davids St Davids: Introduction https://qualla.com/st-davids/ Two pilgrimages to St Davids equal one to Rome. That was the medieval reckoning, granted by Pope Calixtus II in 1123, and it is one reason this Pembrokeshire settlement of 1,751 people is officially a city. The other reason is its cathedral, hidden in a green hollow on the banks of the River Alun, where Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, is said to have founded his monastery around the year 550. St Davids is the smallest city in the United Kingdom by population, smaller than many villages, and one of only two places in Britain whose city status was specifically restored at a queen's request.

Read more: St Davids on Qualla

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/h/r/st-davids-wp/gchr-st-davids-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full St Davids: The Saint and the Vale https://qualla.com/st-davids/ David was born around 500 AD to Saint Non, at the wind-battered headland where the Chapel of St Non still stands above the cliffs west of the modern town. He was baptised at Porthclais harbour by Saint Elvis, raised by his mother at Llanon, and educated, according to tradition, a...

Read more: St Davids on Qualla

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/h/r/st-davids-wp/gchr-st-davids-the-saint-and-the-vale.mp3 0:06 2 full St Davids: Vikings and Kings https://qualla.com/st-davids/ Pilgrims came. So did Vikings, repeatedly, through the ninth and tenth centuries, raiding the wealth that pilgrimage had accumulated. The cathedral records bishops killed in Viking attacks. The scholastic community at St Davids was nonetheless famous enough that when Alfred the G...

Read more: St Davids on Qualla

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/h/r/st-davids-wp/gchr-st-davids-vikings-and-kings.mp3 0:06 3 full St Davids: The Roof Lead and the Long Decline https://qualla.com/st-davids/ Then in 1536 Bishop William Barlow, an aggressive Protestant reformer appointed under Henry VIII, sold the lead from the roof of the Bishop's Palace and used the proceeds to dower his daughters. He moved the bishop's main residence to Abergwili in Carmarthenshire in 1542 and effe...

Read more: St Davids on Qualla

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/h/r/st-davids-wp/gchr-st-davids-the-roof-lead-and-the-long-decline.mp3 0:06 4 full St Davids: Reinstatement and the Smallest City https://qualla.com/st-davids/ In 1991 the St Davids town council proposed reclaiming the title. The Home Office took the request to Buckingham Palace, and in 1994 Queen Elizabeth II granted city status "in recognition of their important Christian heritage and their status as cities in the last century," to St...

Read more: St Davids on Qualla

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/h/r/st-davids-wp/gchr-st-davids-reinstatement-and-the-smallest-city.mp3 0:06 5 full St Davids: The Edge of Wales https://qualla.com/st-davids/ The city sits on a peninsula at the southern end of the Irish Sea, between Cardigan Bay to the north, St George's Channel to the west, and St Brides Bay to the south. Pen Dal-aderyn, just west of St Justinian, is the most westerly point of mainland Wales. Ramsey Island lies offsh...

Read more: St Davids on Qualla

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/h/r/st-davids-wp/gchr-st-davids-the-edge-of-wales.mp3 0:06 6 full