Glastonbury a market town and parish of Somersetshire, England, 25 m. S. W. of Bath; pop. in 1871, 3,670. The town occupies a peninsula, formerly an island (Avalon), in the river Brue. It derives its interest and importance almost wholly from its ruins, prominent among which are those of a famous Benedictine abbey, founded, it is said, by St. Augus-tin in 605, rebuilt in great splendor about a century later, and enriched by the liberality of successive princes until the time of Ethelred I. It suffered from the Danes, and before the conquest, when the Normans robbed it of both wealth and influence, had gained considerable importance and celebrity. Its half ruined walls were rebuilt by Stephen and Henry II., and its abbot was honored with a mitre and a seat among the barons in parliament. At one time it was annexed to the see of Wells, the incumbent of which was called bishop of Glastonbury. On the suppression of monasteries by Henry VIII. it enjoyed a revenue of £3,508 13s. 4 3/4d. In 1539 Richard Whiting, the last abbot, for refusing to surrender the abbey to the king, was hanged in his robes on Torhill with two of his monks.

The abbey ruins, consisting of portions of the church, the chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea, and a building called the abbot's kitchen, are comprised in a quadrangle of GO acres, which was once encompassed by a high wall. A reputation for sanctity clung to Glastonbury long after the reformation, and as late as 1751 10,000 invalids flocked hither in a single month, to drink from a spring said to cause miraculous cures.