PICTURESQUE ruins once housed the political powerhouse and religious capital of Wales, say archaeologists. Experts from Lampeter university believe the abbey at Strata Florida was a city of light to rival Westminster Cathedral and Oxford. Near Pontrhydfendigaid in rural Ceredigion, it reputedly once held the most sacred of all icons, the Holy Grail, but there were very few other clues as to its hugely important past. Now work by archaeologists, led by Professor David Austin, has revealed the ruins were once 10 times the size they now appear. Deciphering farm names helped uncover the true scale of a massive monastic operation on the site hundreds of years ago. The roots of the modern village of Pontrhydfendigaid are all down to the importance of Strata Florida, says Prof Austin, who has used aerial photographs, geophysics and excavation techniques to assist his work. The village was set up to house the abbey's labour force, and farms established for food and working animals, such as horse-power. It also explains why some of Wales's best known literary figures are buried there - medieval poets like Dafydd ap Gwilym, making it the Welsh Oxford of the day. Professor Austin said: "It would be going too far to describe it as a capital city but it was where all the thinking was going on in the middle ages. It was a centre of books." Welsh prince Llywelyn Fawr, who had all of the nation ' s other princes under his rule, chose Strata Florida for a major meeting place shortly before he died in 1236. "He asked that their loyalty be passed down to his son Dafydd when he died. "Had that happened, Wales would have become a nation," said Prof Austin. "The power of the place is unquestionable, that goes way beyond the ruins there today." The abbey at Strata Florida Cymuned members boarding the Arriva train at Bangor on Saturday Picture: ROBERT PARRY JONES | 
