Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
We're here for the ruins of
Cong Abbey
(free and always open). The abbey was built
in the early 1100s, when Romanesque was going out of style and Gothic was coming in;
you'll see the mixture of rounded Romanesque and pointy Gothic arch styles in the door-
way. The famous Cross of Cong, which held a holy relic of what was supposedly a splinter
of the True Cross, was hoisted aloft at the front of processions of Augustinian monks dur-
ing High Masses in this church. This Irish art treasure is now on display in Dublin's Na-
tional Museum. Rory O'Connor, the last Irish high king, died in this abbey in 1198. After
O'Connor realized he could never outfight the superior Norman armies, he retreated to
Cong and spent his last years here in monastic isolation.
