Museum Gardens

The York Museum Gardens are defined by the jagged, towering stone ruins of Saint Mary's Abbey, which rise prominently above the manicured lawns. Founded as a Benedictine monastery in ten eighty-eight, the abbey grew to become the wealthiest and most powerful in northern England. Its influence was so great that its abbot held a position in the House of Lords, rivaling the authority of the Archbishop of York. The site served as a center for administration, charity, and learning for centuries until Henry the Eighth ordered the dissolution of the monasteries in fifteen thirty-nine.