WESTMINSTER ABBEY

WESTMINSTER ABBEY

Westminster Abbey, or Collegiate Church of St. Peter in Westminster, is the most important religious Anglican place in London after the Cathedral of St. Paul, seat of the coronations of the sovereigns of England and burial of important people. It is situated in Westminster, London, near the Palace of Westminster, the seat of Parliament. Not far away there is also the Catholic Cathedral of Westminster, that is more recent, with which the Abbey should not be confused. It was named in order to distinguish it from St. Mary of the Graces (in Eastminster), where we can find a Cistercian monastery. Today Westminster Abbey is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Westminster Abbey was built between 1045 and 1050 by Edward the Confessor, who dedicated himself to the construction, to keep faith with a vote made while he was in exile in Normandy. If his family had regained the throne of England, he would have made a pilgrimage to Rome. When he understood that it was impossible to leave the country, he sent a messenger to the Pope, asking him to be dispensed from the vote. The Pope decided to change it: he had to build a monastery dedicated to St. Peter. Edward identified Thorney Island on the Thames as the possible site, where the saint was commemorated in the past. There, in 616, a small sanctuary had been built after a fisherman’s vision of St. Peter; since then, the Thames fishermen started donated the saint a salmon on June 29th. Also in this place St. Dunstan, around 970, built a convent of Benedictine monks. In 1045, Edward the Confessor added a large donation of land and began the construction of an enormous Romanesque church, that was consecrated on December 28th, 1065, while in 1245 it was rebuilt in Gothic style.

HISTORY

HISTORY

In 1376 the nave was completely rebuilt by the architect Henry Yevele, who also worked on both the Tower of London and the Palace of Westminster.

Between 1503 and 1519, during Henry VII’s and Henry VIII’s reigns, the Chapel of the Madonna was rebuilt, today it is called ‘Chapel Henry VII’. During the Renaissance, Italian artists worked there, too, for example the sculptor Pietro Torrigiano.

In 1540 the Benedictine monks had to leave the monastery because of the Anglican reform. Twenty years later, Elizabeth I re-established the monastery by giving it a series of different rules. From 1066, starting with Harold II of England, Edward the Confessor’s brother-in-law, all the coronations and obsequies of the royals took place in the church.

The main façade, built in the fifteenth century, is oriented West. Preceded by a churchyard, whose gate is made of wrought iron, it is between the two bell towers built by the English architect Nicholas Hawksmoor in Gothic style; the largest bell weighs 1544 kg. At the centre of the facade there is the splayed portal, flanked by the statues of Truth, Justice, Mercy and Peace.

The façade of the transept left arm, however, is salient, inspired by the French models. In the lower part, there are the three large opened wide portals, each of which is surmounted by a Gothic pediment. Above the portals there are three-light windows and, higher up, a loggia that opens with mullioned windows; in correspondence of the central nave of the transept, there is a large circular rose window; the façade of the transept ends at the top with a triangular tympanum decorated with Gothic motifs.

THE ABBEY’S EXTERNAL

The interior of the collegiate church of St. Peter is a Latin cross and has a nave and two

side aisles, with a length of 156 meters and a total width of 34 meters. We can enter the

church from the western portal: immediately we find St. George’s Chapel, an old

baptistery, now dedicated to the fallen of the First World War.

On the left there is the oldest picture of an English King: Richard II. In the right nave we

can see a plaque on the floor in honour of the founder of scouting: Robert Baden-Powell

and his wife Olave. Along the central nave we can see the tomb of the Unknown Soldier

and, later on, a plaque that commemorates Winston Churchill. There are also the tombs of

some 19th-century architects and in Poets’ Corner there are the graves or

commemorations of the most famous writers and poets of English literature, such as G.

Chaucer, R. Kipling and C. Dickens.

THE ABBEY’S INTERNAL

THE ABBEY’S INTERNAL

The main altar is surmounted by a glass mosaic representing the Last Supper. Behind it there are the Royal Chapels, the main of which is dedicated to Henry VII. The chapel contains a hundred graves, almost all of sovereigns of England. In the abbey there is the chair of King Edward, the throne on which sovereigns sit during their coronation. In the Abbey there are also two schools, the Westminster School, founded by the Benedictines in 1179, and the choir school, the Westminster Abbey Choir School.

THE ORGAN

The organ of Westminster Abbey was built in 1937 by the company Harrison & Harrison and it had four keyboards and pedals on 84 registers. It was inaugurated with the coronation of George VI. The artistic boxes in which it is contained, were designed at the end of the last century but their completion was only realized in 1959. In 1982, again by Harrison & Harrison, it was completely restored (until 1986), and many new registers were added. During this period the reeds of many registers were analyzed, resulting in construction dating back to the late 1600s and early 1700s. This showed that much of the ancient organ material had been reused during the various reconstructions of the instrument over the centuries. In 2006, the computerized combination management system was updated and upgraded, as well as a complete reset of the console.

DATES & CURIOSITIES

September 6, 1997 burial of Lady Diana, Princess of Wales, victim of a car accident under the Pont de l'Alma, a tunnel in Paris.

April 9th, 2002 burial of the Queen Mother - Elizabeth Bowes - Lyons, the last Queen of Ireland and Empress of India.

April 29th, 2011, Prince William e Kate Middleton’s wedding.

• We can visit the College Gardens: they were the only source of livelihood for the monks along with trees, fruits and medicinal herbs. It is the perfect place to run away from caos, especially in spring.

• It has been declared UNESCO World Eritage Site in 1987.

• The ten bells of the abbey, in the shades of RE3, are extremly precious.

• Elizabeth I, one of the most important Queens of England, rests in Westminster, near her cousin and antagonist, Mary Stuart Queen of Scots, sentenced to death by her.

PHOTOS

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