St Patrick's Cathedral is the national cathedral of the Church of Ireland and the largest church in Ireland. It stands on one of the oldest Christian sites in Dublin — a well at which St Patrick is said to have baptised converts around 450 AD. The present building dates from 1191, rebuilt and extended in the 13th century, and substantially restored in the 1860s with funds from the Guinness family.
The interior is rich with monuments, memorials, and curiosities. The most significant is the tomb of Jonathan Swift, Dean of the cathedral from 1713 to 1745, the author of Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal, and the most ferocious satirist of his age. His epitaph is on the south wall; nearby is the grave of Stella (Esther Johnson), the woman at the centre of his life. The Boyle Monument in the south transept, a carved family memorial commissioned in 1632, is the largest such monument in Ireland.
The choir is one of the finest in Ireland and sings Choral Evensong on weekdays.