Govan Old Parish Church | |
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The Parish Church of St Constantine of Strathclyde | |
55°51′53″N 4°18′46″W / 55.8646°N 4.3129°W | |
Location | Glasgow |
Country | Scotland |
Denomination | Church of Scotland |
Website | https://thegovanstones.org.uk/ |
History | |
Status | Closed |
Founded | c.5th to 6th Century |
Dedication | Constantine |
Dedicated | 19 May 1888 |
Architecture | |
Functional status | Museum & Historic Church |
Architect(s) | Robert Rowand Anderson |
Years built | 1884-1888 |
Groundbreaking | 6 December 1884 |
Closed | October 2007 |
Administration | |
Presbytery | Presbytery of Glasgow |
Parish | Govan & Linthouse |
Listed Building – Category A | |
Designated | 6 July 1966 |
Reference no. | LB33353 |
Govan Old Parish Church is a former parish church serving Govan in Glasgow from the 5th or 6th century AD until 2007. In that year, the Church of Scotland united the two Govan congregations with Linthouse and established the parish church at Govan Cross, making Govan Old redundant.[1] A decade later, Govan Old Walkway was opened, connecting both with a new riverside path.[2]
Govan Old is no longer used for regular Sunday services, but the building remains a place of worship with a daily morning service and is open to visitors in the afternoons. The church, dedicated to a Saint Constantine, occupies a Scottish Gothic Revival building of national significance (A-Listed by Historic Environment Scotland) within a churchyard designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument (Historic Environment Scotland).
The church houses an internationally-significant collection of early medieval sculpture, known as the Govan Stones. All the carved stones come from the churchyard and include the Govan Sarcophagus, four upstanding crosses with figurative and interlace decoration, five Anglo-Scandinavian hogbacks, and a wide range of recumbent burial monuments, all seemingly dating to the 9th – 11th centuries AD.
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