Christ Church Cathedral

Sitric Silkbeard founded the church with Dúnán as the first bishop, on the high ground overlooking the Viking settlement at Wood Quay. Archbishop Laurence O'Toole made it an Augustinian priory in 1163, and after 1172 Strongbow and other Norman lords paid for a complete rebuilding in stone. Strongbow's tomb is still in the cathedral. When Henry VIII dissolved the priory in 1539, it became a cathedral with a dean and chapter, as it remains today.

Below the church lies the crypt, built in 1172 and 1173 and 63.4 metres long, the largest cathedral crypt in Britain or Ireland. Among its curiosities are the mummified remains of a cat and a rat.

Much of what you see above ground dates from the restoration of 1871 to 1878 by the architect George Edmund Street, paid for by the whiskey distiller Henry Roe. It also created the covered bridge to the neighbouring Synod Hall, now home to the Dublinia exhibition. The cathedral belongs to the Church of Ireland and is still an active place of worship.