St Davids

Long before the cathedral, the far western tip of Wales was a holy place. After the Romans left, the area was known in Latin as Menevia and in Welsh as Mynyw, and some medieval texts say Saint Patrick founded a church here around 470. Saint David is said to have been born to Saint Non around 500, where the Chapel of St Non now stands, and to have been baptised at Porthclais. He founded a church and monastery at Glyn Rhosyn on the banks of the River Alun, where the cathedral stands today.

The monastery, known as Tyddewi, "House of David", became a famous centre of pilgrimage and a religious and intellectual centre, and suffered numerous Viking attacks by the ninth century. As the Normans advanced into Pembrokeshire it became a marcher borough, the present cathedral was begun in 1181, and St Davids was given city status in the same century. Pope Calixtus II decreed that two pilgrimages to St Davids equalled one to Rome, and William the Conqueror, Henry II and Edward I with Queen Eleanor all came.

The Reformation ended the pilgrim trade. In 1536 Bishop William Barlow sold the lead from the Bishop's Palace roof, and in 1542 he moved the bishop's residence to Abergwili; the city declined, and by the 19th century only the cathedral kept its former glory. City status was lost in 1886 and restored in 1994 at the request of Elizabeth II, who presented the letters patent in the cathedral on 1 June 1995. Better transport and tourism brought new prosperity in the later 20th century.

Everything in St Davids returns to its saint. Saint David is the patron saint of Wales, and his day, 1 March, is marked across the country with daffodils and leeks; here, at his resting place, it carries particular weight. The cathedral remains a working church and a place of modern pilgrimage, and in summer it fills with visitors as well as worshippers. Each year it hosts an organ festival at the end of May.

The city's 210 listed buildings, from the cross in Cross Square to the cathedral close, make it a destination for walkers, tourists and pilgrims alike, and many of the ancient buildings, including the Bishop's Palace, are maintained by Cadw and open to the public.

The sea shapes local life as much as the church. The lifeboat station at St Justinian, built on stilts above the water, tells the story of rescues among the rocks and fast tides of Ramsey Sound, where the lifeboat was once a large wooden rowing boat. Rugby is followed closely, with St Davids RFC playing in the Welsh Rugby Union League West.

About 1,750 people lived in the community of St Davids and the Cathedral Close at the 2021 census, making it the smallest city in the United Kingdom by population. The community was formed in 1987 by merging the city parish with the Cathedral Close, which had been run as a separate civil parish for 50 years after the disestablishment of the Church in Wales in 1920.

Tourism has brought the city new prosperity since the later 20th century, from guest houses, cafés and art galleries to boat trips around Ramsey Island and water sports at Whitesands Bay. The city council is based at St Davids City Hall on the High Street, completed in 1924, and the city is served by the Haverfordwest-based Western Telegraph newspaper.

The seasons set the pace. In high summer the streets, car parks and Whitesands Bay are crowded, and the coastal buses and boat trips run full; in winter the city is quiet.

St Davids eats much as the rest of Wales does. Cawl, recognised as a national dish of Wales, is a broth of lamb or beef with leeks, potatoes and root vegetables; Welsh rarebit is a hot cheese sauce, often with ale or mustard, on toast; and laverbread, or bara lawr, is made from laver, an edible seaweed, and traditionally eaten fried with bacon and cockles as part of a Welsh breakfast.

Two teatime classics turn up in Welsh cafés. Welsh cakes, or picau ar y maen, are small spiced fruit cakes cooked on a bakestone or griddle, and bara brith is a fruit loaf made with tea-soaked dried fruit. Welsh beef is registered as a Protected Geographical Indication. On St David's Day, eating cawl and Welsh cakes is part of the traditional festivities.

The cafés, pubs and restaurants are grouped around Cross Square and along the High Street, and there is a small shop and café at the Whitesands Bay car park for beach days.