Christ Church Cathedral, Christchurch, Dublin

Magnificent Christ Church Cathedral has been at the heart of Dublin since its Viking foundation in the 11th century.

Viking Dublin's cathedral was built on this site about 1038, gaining its present shape from 1172 in the new cathedral of Archbishop (later Saint) Laurence O'Toole and the Norman knight Richard de Clare ("Strongbow"). From his appointment in 1162 Archbishop Laurence had begun a reform of the cathedral's celtic traditions along European lines.

The Cathedral was served by the Augustinian order whose Chapter House can still be seen within the grounds of the Cathedral.

Regarded as the 'state church', each new Lord Lieutenant was sworn in here up until the 16th century. The earliest surviving sections of the building are the twelfth century crypt, which extends the entire length of the building.

There have been major restorations of the cathedral in 1358, 1562, 1829-31, 1871-8 when brewer Henry Roe gave £230,000 (£23m today!) to save it, and from 1980-2. A donation is requested of visitors visiting the cathedral, often to their surprise. In Ireland, historic churches receive no direct financial help from neither national or local government

The Crypt once contained three chapels, and during the seventeenth century it was let to shops selling tobacco and to 'tippling houses'; early alehouses.

Christ Church Cathedral received a grant from the AIF of €12,697 in 2000 to restore, preserve and develop the crypt of the Cathedral which would offer the facility to display the Cathedral treasury.