Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset was a Benedictine monastery and is now a ruin and visitor attraction. The article gives its founding as 712 under King Ine of Wessex, though it also notes a British community by the early 7th century and a legend of a 1st-century founding. A fire in 1184 destroyed the monastic buildings. The Lady Chapel was consecrated in 1186, and services began in the Great Church on December 25, 1213.
The Great Church was 220 feet (67 m) long, built mostly of stone from the Doulting quarries. The 14th-century Abbot's Kitchen is octagonal, with four large arched fireplaces.
A reputed discovery of King Arthur's tomb in 1191 boosted pilgrimage. Abbot Richard Whiting was executed on Glastonbury Tor on November 15, 1539, and the abbey was stripped and later quarried. The site covers 36 acres.
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