Ely ( ) is a
cathedral city in
Cambridgeshire, England, 14 miles (23 km) north-north-east of
Cambridge and about by road from London.
Æthelthryth (Etheldreda) founded an abbey at Ely in AD 673; the abbey was destroyed in 870 by Danish invaders and was rebuilt by
Ethelwold, Bishop of
Winchester, in 970. Construction of the cathedral was started in 1083 by a
Norman abbot,
Simeon.
Alan of Walsingham's octagon, built over Ely's
nave crossing between 1322 and 1328, is the "greatest individual achievement of architectural genius at Ely Cathedral", according to architectural historian
Nikolaus Pevsner. Building continued until the
dissolution of the abbey in 1539 during the Reformation. The cathedral was sympathetically restored between 1845 and 1870 by the architect
George Gilbert Scott. As the seat of a
diocese, Ely has long been considered a city; in 1974,
city status was granted by
royal charter.