An integral but often overlooked part of the Canterbury World Heritage Site, St Augustine’s Abbey was founded in AD 597, marking the rebirth of Christianity in southern England. Later requisitioned as a royal palace, it fell into disrepair and now only stumpy foundations remain. A small museum and a worthwhile free audio guide do their best to underline the site’s importance and put flesh back onto its now-humble bones.
St Augustine’s Abbey
Canterbury
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
0.25 MILES
A rich repository of more than 1400 years of Christian history, Canterbury Cathedral is the Church of England’s mother ship, and a truly extraordinary…
19.97 MILES
Leeds Castle, an immense moated pile just east of Maidstone, is often considered the world’s most romantic castle. It's certainly one of the most visited…
14.94 MILES
Turner Contemporary is a blockbuster art gallery, bolted together on the site of the seafront guesthouse where master painter JMW Turner used to stay…
14.42 MILES
Occupying top spot, literally and figuratively, in Dover’s townscape, this most impressive of castles was built to bolster the country’s weakest point at…
14.5 MILES
Despite voting leave, the poor port town of Dover is possibly the Southeast community set to suffer most post-Brexit. It was perhaps for that reason that…
Beaney House of Art & Knowledge
0.41 MILES
This mock-Tudor edifice is the grandest on the main shopping thoroughfare, if not the most authentic. Formerly called the Royal Museum & Art Gallery, it…
14.6 MILES
The biggest draw at Dover Castle is the secret wartime tunnels. The claustrophobic chalk-hewn passageways were excavated during the Napoleonic Wars and…
10.63 MILES
Roman Britain began here amid the windswept ruins of Richborough’s Roman Fort, just 2 miles north of Sandwich. This is where the successful AD 43 invasion…
Nearby Canterbury attractions
0.22 MILES
This stumpy little building just off the road from Canterbury to Sandwich is thought to be England’s oldest parish church in continuous use. It’s also…
0.25 MILES
A rich repository of more than 1400 years of Christian history, Canterbury Cathedral is the Church of England’s mother ship, and a truly extraordinary…
0.3 MILES
This fascinating subterranean archaeological site gives an insight into Canterbury’s everyday life almost two millennia ago. Visitors can stroll a…
0.36 MILES
This ambitious, overpriced three-dimensional interpretation of Chaucer’s classic tales using jerky animatronics and audioguides is certainly entertaining,…
5. Beaney House of Art & Knowledge
0.41 MILES
This mock-Tudor edifice is the grandest on the main shopping thoroughfare, if not the most authentic. Formerly called the Royal Museum & Art Gallery, it…
0.44 MILES
A ‘place of hospitality’ for pilgrims, soldiers and the elderly since 1180, Eastbridge Hospital of St Thomas the Martyr is the last of many such buildings…
0.5 MILES
You’ll find Greyfriars Chapel in serene riverside gardens behind Eastbridge Hospital. The first monastery built in England by Franciscan monks in 1267,…
0.59 MILES
The city’s only remaining medieval gateway (1380) houses a museum that focuses on the building’s use as a prison. The views from the top are pretty good,…
- placement: superzone
- path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
- possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
- targeting:
{ "url": "england/canterbury/attractions/st-augustine-s-abbey/a/poi-sig/1014896/1316522", "destination": "Canterbury", "continent": "Europe", "country": "England", "city": "Canterbury", "position": "superzone" }