Westminster Abbey - London, UK
N 51° 29.958 W 000° 07.636
30U E 699388 N 5709264
Westminster Abbey by Richard Jenkyns - The book about one of the key London' landmarks and also one of the most notable religious buildings in the United Kingdom...
Waymark Code: WMMMEY
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 10/09/2014
Views: 27
Westminster Abbey by Richard Jenkyns - The book about one of the key London' landmarks and also one of the most notable religious buildings in the United Kingdom.
Westminster Abbey by Richard Jenkyns: Profile Books Ltd., United Kingdom, 2011 (ISBN 10: 1846685346 / ISBN 13: 9781846685347).
Westminster Abbey is the most complex church in the world in terms of its history, functions and memories - perhaps the most complex building of any kind. It has been an abbey and a cathedral and is now a collegiate church and a royal peculiar. It is the coronation church, a royal mausoleum, a Valhalla for the tombs of the great, a 'national cathedral' and the 'Tomb of the Unknown Warrior'. This new edition recounts the story of this iconic building and the role it plays in our national psyche... [book synopsis]
Westminster Abbey, located near the Houses of Parliament, is more a historical site than a religious site. Since 1066 every royal coronation, with the exception of Edward V and Edward VIII has taken place in this church.
The Abbey also serves as the burial ground for great people of United Kingdom. The Abbey is stuffed with tombs, statues and monuments. In total approximately 3300 people are buried in the church and cloisters. You van fid here tombs of Charles Darwin, Sir Isaac Newton or David Livingstone... A church stood here already in the eight century but the history of the current abbey starts in 1050, when King Edward The Confessor decided to build a monastery. Only a small part of this Norman monastery, consecrated in 1065, survived. The only representation of this original building is shown on the Bayeux Tapestry. Majority of the present structure dates from 1245-1272, when Henry III decided to rebuild the abbey in the Gothic style. The building was later significantly expanded: the Chapel of Henry VII was added in 1503-1512, while the two West Front Towers date from 1745. The youngest part of the abbey is the North entrance, completed in the 19th century. The Abbey's magnificent Gothic nave is England's highest.