The Strata Florida Project

Strata Florida Cistercian Abbey is one of the great iconic sites of Welsh history.

see History of Strata Florida

In 1998-9 Professor David Austin of the Department of Archaeology & Anthropology in the University of Wales, Lampeter conceived the idea of a major research and development programme centred on the former Abbey: the Strata Florida Project.  This has four principal components:

• Strata Florida Research Project
  
  To develop a major research programme setting Strata Florida in its social, political and landscape contexts, to include not just the period of the Abbey’s existence, but also its antecedents from the later Iron Age onwards and its successors up to the present day.

• Strata Florida Education and Interpretation Programme
  
  To use this research programme as a basis for training and teaching, not only at university undergraduate and postgraduate level, but also more widely for schools, the community and others with an interest in archaeology, history, the site, its landscape and all that they represent.

• Strata Florida Development Partnership
  
  To promote and enable the sustainable development of the historic farm complex of Mynachlog Fawr, which lies immediately to the south of the Cadw monument of church and cloisters, as a ‘Gateway to the Cambrian Mountains’.

• Strata Florida and the Arts
  
  To assist the arts in using this venue, which has strong traditions as both supporter and subject matter of the arts in Wales, through engagement with both individual artists and with others, including the community, in the promotion of the place and its landscape as a source for challenging inspiration and as a venue for presentation.

Various aspects of the work undertaken on the Strata Florida Project in 2007-8, including the creation of this web-site, have been supported by a grant from the Welsh Assembly Government’s Knowledge Exploitation Fund (HE-08-FSP-1001) with the aim: To develop the research and development capability in the Heritage Environment and Historic Landscape Sector. This financial assistance is gratefully acknowledged.