The west front towers of Westminster Abbey,
London. Photo by Niccolò.
The northern entrance of Westminster Abbey,
London. Photo by Niccolò.
Westminster
Abbey, is the traditional place of coronation, where all the sovereigns since the 11th
century have been crowned and the burial site for English monarchs. A shrine was first
founded in 616 on the present site of the Abbey, it was said to have been miraculously
consecrated after a fisherman on the River Thames saw a vision of Saint Peter. In the
1040s King Edward, established his royal palace by the banks of the river Thames. Close by
was a small Benedictine monastery founded around 960 AD. This monastery Edward chose to
re-endow and greatly enlarge, building a large stone church in honour of St Peter the
Apostle. This church became known as the “west minster” to distinguish it from
St Paul’s Cathedral (the "east minster") in the City of London. The new
church was consecrated on 28 December 1065. In the middle of the 13th century King Henry
III decided to rebuild the church in the Gothic style. Under the decree of the King of
England, Westminster Abbey was designed to be not only a great monastery and place of
worship, but also a place for the coronation and burial of monarchs. The Abbey contains
some 600 monuments and wall tablets and over three thousand people are buried here. The
abbey's two western towers were built between 1722 and 1745 by Nicholas Hawksmoor.
Since 1987, Unesco inscribed Westminster Abbey in the World
heritage list, the site, also comprises the Westminster Palace, rebuilt from the year 1840
that is a fine example of neo-Gothic architecture and the small medieval Church of Saint
Margaret, built in Perpendicular Gothic style. For visit the Abbey a fee is due.
