The reconstruction of Saint David's Shrine

Saint David's shrine (built 1275) was an important site of Pilgrimage in the middle ages with the Pope declaring that two visits there were the same as one to Rome but the shrine was destroyed during the Reformation and Pilgrimage here waned.

Then in 2010 the Dean of Students David's, the Very Reverend Johnathon Lean, launched The Shrine Appeal to raise £150,000 to restore the shrine

The restored shrine was re-dedicated by the Bishop of Saint David's on Saint David's day 2012.

The shrine has five icons painted and gilded in the Byzantine style using traditional techniques (for example for the gesso on the lime wood panels the artist, Sara Crisp, used egg tempera).

The above painted oak canopy was designed by Peter Bird and made by Friend Wood and tries to copy the 13th century construction of the original and is decorated with gold to represent the heavens and has been painted in colours used in the mediaeval period.

The three nieches at the foot of the shrine were once used for kneeling but now house two reliquaries that are reputed to contain the remains of St David and St Justinian.

The original mediaeval floor and the modern copy below

The two icons on the back of the shrine

More information on Saint David and Saint David's Cathedral can be found in this post:

http://footprintsonthecamino.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/saint-davids.html

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