Westminster
For a few minutes in the main body of Westminster Abbey the eye can do little but travel upwards. The ordered, multiplying lines of columns and arches reaching up to a dizzying 30m (98 feet) demand it. This is Gothic architecture at its best: everything designed to emphasize the majesty of God while retaining a sense of man's relationship with the transcendent.
No wonder then, that this is the resting place of royalty, Isaac Newton, Samuel Johnson, Alfred Tennyson, Laurence Olivier; Diana, Princess...
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The ordered, multiplying lines of columns and arches reaching up to a dizzying 30m (98 feet) demand it. This is Gothic architecture at its best: everything designed to emphasize the majesty of God while retaining a sense of man's relationship with the transcendent.
No wonder then, that this is the resting place of royalty, Isaac Newton, Samuel Johnson, Alfred Tennyson, Laurence Olivier; Diana, Princess of Wales; that it is one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites.
Edward the Confessor began building a stone church for a small Benedictine monastery on the site in the mid-11th century. (There were monks there until the Dissolution in 1540.) There could have been no greater irony than that an invader Norman William the Conqueror, should have been crowned there in December 1066, within a year of the abbey's consecration. Coronations of British monarchs have been held in the abbey ever since.
The shrine of Edward the Confessor is still considered the most sacred part of the abbey and continues to attract pilgrims. The oak Coronation Chair, first used when Edward II was crowned in 1307, is there.
The Anglo-French Gothic masterpiece we see today is the result of Henry III's desire to build a grander shrine to Edward the Confessor. He initiated the abbey's refashioning in 1245. Henry VII added the Lady Chapel, with its fine fan vaulting, in the early 16th century. The West Towers were unfinished from medieval times and were completed to Nicholas Hawksmoor's design between 1722 and 1745.
The abbey is huge and filled with monuments. To appreciate it best, go to a service to hear the choir accompanied by the abbey organ. Don't forget to go outside to the cloisters which give an excellent view of the flying buttresses.
No wonder then, that this is the resting place of royalty, Isaac Newton, Samuel Johnson, Alfred Tennyson, Laurence Olivier; Diana, Princess of Wales; that it is one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites.
Edward the Confessor began building a stone church for a small Benedictine monastery on the site in the mid-11th century. (There were monks there until the Dissolution in 1540.) There could have been no greater irony than that an invader Norman William the Conqueror, should have been crowned there in December 1066, within a year of the abbey's consecration. Coronations of British monarchs have been held in the abbey ever since.
The shrine of Edward the Confessor is still considered the most sacred part of the abbey and continues to attract pilgrims. The oak Coronation Chair, first used when Edward II was crowned in 1307, is there.
The Anglo-French Gothic masterpiece we see today is the result of Henry III's desire to build a grander shrine to Edward the Confessor. He initiated the abbey's refashioning in 1245. Henry VII added the Lady Chapel, with its fine fan vaulting, in the early 16th century. The West Towers were unfinished from medieval times and were completed to Nicholas Hawksmoor's design between 1722 and 1745.
The abbey is huge and filled with monuments. To appreciate it best, go to a service to hear the choir accompanied by the abbey organ. Don't forget to go outside to the cloisters which give an excellent view of the flying buttresses.
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