Saint Mary's Abbey: Detail, ruins of St. Mary's Abbey Church

From ca. 1200 until its dissolution in 1539 St. Mary's Abbey was the richest monastic house in the north of England. This is attested by the remains of its 13th-, 14th- and 15th-century buildings (now in ruins). The church chancel is Romanesque, but had the most important extant Early Gothic sculpture in England (now in York Museum). The eastern arm of the church (begun 1270) was a nine-bay aisled rectangle of a locally well-established type. Other buildings include a chapter house and the brick abbot's house (begun ca. 1483; now part of the King's Manor).