BRECON or BRECKNOCK (ABERHONDDU), cathedral town, municipal borough and capital of Breconshire, Wales. Population 5,334, situated at the confluence of the Honddu with the Usk near the centre of the county. Its site com mands routes from Builth in the north, Llandovery in the west, Merthyr and Crickhowell in the south, and Knighton and Hay in the east. About 3m. W. of the town is the famous Roman station known as "Y Gaer" and as is so often the case, Brecon has con tinued the importance of the nodal site selected by the Romans. From the ruins of the Roman Fort, it is said, Bernard de New march built the original Norman Castle in 1092. Its history was a stormy one as was the case with all castles that were outposts near the Welsh Hills. Bernard subsequently founded, near the castle, the Benedictine priory of St. John, which he endowed and constituted a cell of Battle Abbey. Nothing remains of the original church except portions of the nave walls, but the rebuildings of the first half of the 13th century and of the 14th century gave beauti ful Early English and decorated additions and made the edifice one of the finest churches in Wales. In 1923 it was made the cathedral of the newly constituted diocese of Swansea and Brecon.
Around the original castle and priory a small mediaeval town grew up, and its inhabitants received a series of charters from the de Bohuns, into which family the castle and lordship passed, the earliest recorded charter being granted by Humphrey, 3rd earl of Hereford. The town became one of the chief centres of trade in South Wales, and a sixteen days' fair, still held in November.
A Dominican friary was established to the south-west of the town and was refounded by Henry VIII. in 1542 as a collegiate church and school. This institution is now known as Christ's College. The nodal site of the town offered special facilities dur ing Tudor economic developments for establishment of trade guilds as well as a Guild Hall. The guilds were formerly five in number, the chief industries being cloth and leather manufacture. There are five ancient fairs for stock, and formerly each of them was preceded by a leather fair. Further charters were granted by Mary in 1536 and again by Elizabeth. Brecon destroyed its castle to preserve its neutrality during the Civil Wars. The subse quent centuries were periods of social life and bustle for the now important capital of the county. The borough came under the Municipal Corporations act in 1835. A college for the training of Congregational Ministers was established in 1869.
By a statute of 1535 Brecon elected a member to represent it in parliament, a right it retained until it was merged in the county representation in 1885. It is now (since 1918) merged in the rep resentation of the joint counties of Brecon and Radnor.