Westminster Abbey is a must-see and a significant structure in British history. This beautiful gothic church is a UNESCO World Heritage Site popular with many visitors to London. Complete with paintings, stained glass windows and other religious artefacts, Westminster Abbey owns the most important collection of monumental sculpture anywhere in Britain.
History
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.
Most of the present building dates from 1245 to 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 between 1503 and 1512, while the two West Front Towers date from 1745. The youngest part of the abbey is the North entrance, completed in the nineteenth century.
The present church was begun by Henry III in 1245. By the 16th Century in Tudor times, Westminster Abbey had become the setting for coronations, royal marriages and funerals.
Every year Westminster Abbey welcomes over one million visitors and is very much part of the standard tourist trail complete with large coach parties. It should be remembered The Abbey is very much a working church. It is closed Sundays for worship and restrictions are regularly applied ad hoc in response to religious events.
Every monarch since William the Conqueror, with the exception of Edward V and Edward VIII who were never crowned, has been crowned in the Abbey. The first documented coronation here was that of William the Conqueror in 1066, the most recent was that of Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953. The decision to televise the coronation of the present Queen in 1953 made it possible for the general public to witness the ceremony in its entirety for the first time.
The Benedictine monastery at Westminster was dissolved in 1540 as part of the impact of Henry VIII's creation of the Church of England breaking away from the Catholic Church. Since then Westminster Abbey has just performed the role of church.