Holy Cross Abbey

Impressive abbey founded for the Benedictines in 1168 but affiliated to the Cistercians from 1182 and extended 1400-1450. Much of what you see now is a 20th-century reconstruction of the abbey church, which in 1975 became the Roman Catholic parish church. It's long been a pilgrimage site, as it claims to hold fragments of the "True Cross." The first was probably bestowed by the King of Limerick at the 1182 Cistercian launch; his family had received it from Pope Pascal II. (Other accounts credit Queen Isabella, widow of King John, in 1233, but by then she was out of favour and busted to being a mere Countess.) In the 15th century the fragment was set in the silver Ormond Reliquary. The abbey was ruined at the Reformation but the relic remained, and continued to draw pilgrims; it was a money-spinner for the village. At the 1975 re-opening, the Vatican provided a second fragment, set in a golden Cross of Jerusalem. This was stolen in 2011 but the police recovered it; perhaps it was too recognisable to be sold, and no arrests were made. The abbey is in a picturesque village with a medieval river bridge.