The centre piece of the city of Ely is its Cathedral. The origins of a church in Ely date back to the infancy of Christianity. A monastry was established at Ely in AD 673 by Etheldreda daughter of Anna, King of the East Angles. Etheldreda gained the land and royal rights to the Isle of Ely on her marriage to Tonbert Lord of the Fenmen. Etheldreda's church was destroyed by the Viking invaders in 869 and languished in ruins until c 970 when the monastry was refounded. The beginnings of the Cathedral emerged after the Norman invasion with building commenced around 1081 and completed around 1189. The Abbey became a Cathedral in 1109. The Ely Cathedral is the oldest continuously inhabited set of medieval monastic buildings in the UK.
The name Ely is derived from the days when the city was surrounded by marshland ( the fens) and its main trade was eels. Today there is a system of canals and pumps to control water levels but the Great Ouse River still winds its way around the city.
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