Founded in 633 and later renamed in honour of the Saxon king and martyr, Edmund, rebuilt by Benedictine monks in the 11C. Only two of its monumental crossing towers are still standing, one of which bears a plaque to Archbishop Langton and the twenty barons who forced King John to sign the Magna Carta. The vestiges of the nave, chancel and transept, together with the abbey gate, give some idea of its magnitude (154 m long, with 12 bays).