Bangor (Wales)

Bangor (Wales), cathedral city and administrative centre of Gwynedd, north Wales. Bangor is situated on the coast at the northern entrance of the Menai Strait which separates the island of Anglesey from the Welsh mainland. The Menai and Britannia bridges cross the strait at Bangor, making it the starting point for trips to the island. The city is the seat of the University College of North Wales (founded 1884) and several theological colleges. Bangor is also a focus of Welsh culture, with an art gallery, a museum of Welsh antiquities, and the Theatr Gwynedd, which is devoted to the work of Welsh playwrights. Bangor cathedral was founded in ad 584 by St Deiniol, its first bishop, to whom the cathedral is now dedicated. A centre of Celtic Christianity, the cathedral has been rebuilt three times, following destruction by the Normans in 1071, by the English King John in the 13th century, and by the Welsh nationalist forces of Owen Glendower in 1404. Sir George Gilbert Scott restored the cathedral in 1866. Population (1985) 15,000.