WESTMINSTER ABBEY

Description

Essentials about Westminster Abbey in brief

Westminster Abbey, located right next to the Palace of Westminster, together with St. Paul’s Cathedral is the most important and best known church in London. A visit to this traditional and historically unique church, including the historical museum and its four beautiful gardens, should definitely be on the agenda of every trip to London. The church, which is actually called “The Collegiate Church of St. Peter”, belongs to the Church of England, but due to its function it does not belong to a diocese, but is the own church of the British monarchy. For centuries, royal heads have been crowned, married and buried here. Because of its historical significance, Westminster Abbey, together with Westminster Palace and St. Margaret’s Church, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The history of Westminster Abbey

The history of Westminster Abbey goes back to a monastic church of a Benedictine abbey located at the present site around 750. Because of its location in relation to the city at that time, the church already bore the name “West Minster”. The first Westminster Abbey was built between 1045 and 1065 under Edward the Confessor in Romanesque style. In 1245, Henry III commissioned the construction of the present church in the French High Gothic style.

However, the construction of the entire church dragged on for many decades. At the end of the 13th century, the choir, transept and the eastern part of the nave with the adjacent cloister and capital building were completed. It was not until more than 100 years later that the nave was built, but without any change in the system of forms. Finally, the two main towers, which also imitated the Gothic style, were not built until the first half of the 18th century. Like St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey has the shape of a cross to commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The tombs in Westminster Abbey

Since William the Conqueror, all kings of England or the United Kingdom have been crowned in Westminster Abbey. Until George II, who died in 1760, almost all kings were also buried in the church. In addition to the English and British monarchs and countless ecclesiastical dignitaries, many important personalities from politics, science and art are buried in Westminster Abbey, including the natural scientist Charles Darwin, the African explorer David Livingstone, the composers George Frideric Handel and Henry Purcell, the physicists Isaac Newton and Ernest Rutherford, the engineer Robert Stephenson, the actor and filmmaker Laurence Olivier and a whole series of British prime ministers.

In the southern transept is the so-called Poet’s Corner, with a monument to Shakespeare and the tombs of some of the most important English poets and writers. And in the nave is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a soldier killed in World War I, commemorating all unidentifiable fallen soldiers of the British forces.

The museum of Westminster Abbey

Since 1908, Westminster Abbey has had its own museum, housed in the 11th-century lower church. The museum’s exhibition features a collection of royal burial objects, a variety of medieval glass and sculpture fragments, Queen Mary II’s coronation chair, replicas of the crown jewels, historical portraits of some monarchs, and England’s oldest surviving altarpiece.

Services in Westminster Abbey

Last but not least, it should be mentioned that Westminster Abbey is still a very active church today. Several times a day there is a service and once an hour a short Christian prayer is held. Everyone is invited to attend and pause for a moment of silence in the midst of London’s hustle and bustle.