St. Audeon's, High Street, Dublin

This small church dedicated to St. Audeon (St. Ouen in French)  is situated within the Dublin's old city walls, and is the city's only surviving medieval parish church. The oldest part of the church, its nave, dates to the 1190s, when a group of English settlers, believed to have come from Bristol, erected a new church on a site which was previously dedicated to the Irish saint, Columba. Significant additions were made in the fourteenth and fifteenth and creating a very substantial church. With the arrival of the Reformation in Dublin the church became a Protestant place of worship. Having laid in a state of semi-dereliction for many years, the church underwent substantial repairs since the 1980s and is once again a working parish church and heritage centre. In 1841 work began on a Catholic church, also dedicated to St. Audeon, directly to the rear of the nave and chancel. 

Medieval Dublin was an intricate patchwork of crowded lanes and streets. The area within the city walls was home to an estimated 10,000 people by the end of the fourteenth century, some four parish chapels, a cathedral, and two chapels belonging to the friars. The above image, probably dating from the early twentieth century, barely resembles today's vista. The lanes and houses adjoining the church have all been removed, making way for a new road and small park. The church itself underwent numerous renovations over the years to tie in with the changing surrounds. The spire, which appears to be medieval, dates only from the seventeenth century, but contains three of Dublin's oldest bells. St. Audeon's was the church of the Lord Mayor and Corporation of Dublin, but also had strong commercial ties, with Tanners and Bakers Guilds gathering there. 

Although the number of people living within the parish boundaries was high, most were Catholics. By the eighteenth century its Protestant population had fallen significantly, with many of its more wealthier parishioners moving to newly erected squares and streets in the east of the city. With the building proving too large for the needs of the parish, it was decided that the Portlester Chapel (seen here on the left) and the chancel (to the right) would be unroofed. In 1820 St Anne's chapel (in line with the tower) was also unroofed, leaving only the nave intact. 

The church contains a number of fine tombs and monuments. The late fifteenth century memorial to the right commemorates Rowland FitzEustace, first baron Portlester, and his wife, Margaret. Portlester served as Lord Chancellor and Treasurer of Ireland and was buried near Kilcullen, Co. Kildare. He is believed to have erected a chapel at St. Audeon's in his name as an act of thanksgiving for his rescue from shipwreck nearby. 

This section of the nave was the only part of the church that survived intact.