ST AUDOENS PARK AND TWO CHURCHES WITH THE SAME NAME
St. Audoen’s park lies beside St. Audoen’s Church which was built in 1300 A.D. It is the only remaining parish church from that time. The church is dedicated to St Ouen, the 7th century bishop of Rouen and patron saint of Normandy.
The park features Dublin’s original stone walls (1100 A.D.), the last surviving entrance to the old city and Fagan’s Gate which was named after the nearby Fagan’s Tower.
St Audoen’s Church is the church of the parish of Saint Audoen in the Church of Ireland, located south of the River Liffey at Cornmarket in Dublin, Ireland. This was close to the centre of the medieval city. The parish is in the Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough. St Audoen’s is the oldest parish church in Dublin and still used as such. There is a Roman Catholic church of the same name adjacent to it.
Fagan’s castle and gate were situated in Page’s Court, a passage between Cornmarket and Cook Street within the old Dublin City Walls. Fagan’s Castle stood there until 1788. They may have been named after the Fagans of Feltrim. Feltrim, near Malahide, was the site of their ancestral residence. Their burial place in the 16th and 17th centuries was at St. Audeon’s Church within the old city walls
SAINT AUDOEN’S PUBLIC PARK ALSO SPELLED AS AUDEON’S
This park was closed to the public for a number of years but it was reopened last year [March 2019].
I was surprised to learn that the park is fairly recent as it first opened in the 1980s and it also surprised me to learn that the church is still active.
The main set of steps leads to a new forecourt area in front of the West Door of St Audoen’s Church. A number of archaeological features, uncovered by the works, have been incorporated into the paths through the park including stone setts of a former laneway that ran through the area called Keysers Lane, medieval cobbles and some Georgian-era paving tiles.
The park now includes a series of interactive sound-based installations for children, as well as a new memorial water feature, recalling the children who lost their lives during the Easter Rising 1916.
St. Audoen’s Park is significant in historical terms. Located adjacent to St. Audoen’s Church (1300 A.D.), it incorporates the first stone city wall dating from about 1100 A.D.; St. Audoen’s Arch, the last surviving entrance to the old city; and Fagan’s Gate.
The City Wall was restored in 1976 as part of Architectural Heritage Year and the park development of 1982 won a prestigious civic award. Audoen was a 7th – century Bishop of Rouen (France) and the nearby church named after him is reputedly one of the oldest still used for regular religious services.
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