St Davids

St Davids or St David's (Welsh: Tyddewi, [tiː ˈðɛwi], lit. "David's house”) is a cathedral city in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It lies on the River Alun and is part of the community of St Davids and the Cathedral Close. It is the resting place of Saint David, Wales's patron saint, and named after him. St Davids is the United Kingdom's smallest city by population (number of residents within the wider community was 1,751 in 2021) and urban area, but it is not the smallest city by local authority boundary area (which is the City of London). St Davids was given city status in the 12th century. This does not derive automatically, but in England and Wales was traditionally given to cathedral towns under practices laid down in the early 1540s, when Henry VIII founded dioceses. City status was lost in 1886, but restored in 1994 at the request of Queen Elizabeth II.