St David's is a city and a community (named St Davids on the Cathedral Close) with a cathedral in Pembrokeshire, Wales, lying on the River Alun; 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 in population (just over 1,600 in 2011) and urban area (the smallest city by local authority boundary area being the City of London) St Davids was given city status in the 12th century. This does not derive automatically from criteria, but in England and Wales it was traditionally given to cathedral towns under practices laid down in the early 1540s, when Henry VIII founded dioceses. City status was withdrawn in 1886, but restored in 1994 at the request of Queen Elizabeth II