1. Close (Nprn402321) & borough associated with & resting under the aegis of St David's Cathedral (Nprn306).
Includes:
City Cross (Nprn305385).
Associated with:
Whitewell Hospital (Nprn276066).
J.Wiles 15.04.04

2. The westernmost peninsula of Pembrokeshire is dominated by the city and cathedral close of St Davids, spiritual home of the patron saint of Wales, which has stood as a place of religious sanctity and pilgrimage for well over a millennium. In medieval times it was said that two pilgrimages to St Davids were equal to one to Rome. The site of St David's original early Christian community, thought to have lain west of the city, has long been lost to history and archaeology and has passed into the realms of legend. This early community was short-lived, however, and was soon moved inland to the banks of the River Alun where the cathedral stands today. By the ninth century St Davids or Menevia was a famous Welsh monastery and a cult centre for followers of the famous saint. While the earliest sections of the cathedral date back only to the twelfth century, it is thought likely that the layout of the medieval cathedral close wall may have followed the line of the pre-existing religious enclosure.

The cathedral sits at the heart of a very old and largely intact close, encircled by a strong wall with fortified gates. The close contains the fine ruins of a once lavish Bishop's Palace, now a protected ancient monument, and a complex of houses and lodgings for the archdeacons and other clerics to the north of the cathedral. Also within the close are a cemetery, a silted fish pond and original tracts of meadow unencumbered by any later development or infilling. The entire complex is still bisected by the River Alun, which is crossed by a ford in the centre below the cathedral. When Fenton visited he wrote: `This close was in circuit twelve hundred yards, had a walk round with a crenelled parapet. The entrance was by four handsome gateways or porths, answering to the four cardinal points'' The present wall was probably that built by Bishop Bek (1280-93), and of the four fortified gates, Porth Boning on the north side, Porth Gwyn on the north-west, Porth Padrig to the south and the twin towers of Porth y T'r to the east, the latter can still be seen and still functions as a main entrance from the city.

Granted city status by Queen Elizabeth the Second on 1 June 1995, and with a population of less than 2,000 inhabitants, St Davids is now recognised as the smallest city in Britain.

Extracts from: Driver, T. 2007. Pembrokeshire, Historic Landscapes from the Air, RCAHMW, Chapter 4.

T. Driver, 28 June 2007