Bangor

Bangor: University of Wales

Bangor, cathedral city, Gwynedd county, historic county of Caernarvonshire (Sir Gaernarfon), northwestern Wales. It commands the northern entrance to the Menai Strait, the narrow strip of water separating the Isle of Anglesey from the mainland.

Bangor Cathedral is dedicated to the Celtic St. Deiniol, who founded a church there in the 6th century; the community was a leading centre of Celtic Christianity. The cathedral, built during the 12th and 13th centuries, later underwent a series of restorations after damage by invading Normans, the English king John, and the early 15th-century rebel Welsh leader Owain Glyn Dŵr. The present structure was extensively restored in 1866.

Bangor, which grew up beside a Norman castle (few traces of which remain), is notable mainly as a cultural centre. It has the University College of North Wales (1884), a group of denominational theological colleges, and a museum of Welsh antiquities. Port Penrhyn nearby grew as an outlet for slates from the quarries near Bethesda. Penrhyn Castle, northeast of Bangor, is a modern copy, in Penmon marble, of a Norman castle. Pop. (2001) 13,725; (2011) 16,358.