WESTMINSTER ABBEY

SUBMITTED BY :SUSHMITA(2010UAR148)ADITYA NIGAM(2010UAR149)DIKSHIT VARA(2010UAR145)

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE

HISTORY•. It's an architectural masterpiece of the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries and contains countless memorials and effigies.• Over three thousand people are either buried or memorialised in Westminster Abbey from Medieval Kings and their Queens, to the tomb of the Unknown Warrior, which in recent times has become a place of pilgrimage.•It is said that a church was founded on the site of Westminster Abbey by Serbert, King of the East Saxons who died in AD616, and this was overseen by Mellitus, the first Bishop of London, but there is no evidence of this building.

•By the 12th century the Abbey at Westminster was flourishing and would have held between thirty and sixty monks, with up to 300 other people also being involved in the running of the Benedictine Monastry.

•The Abbey was by now the wealthiest religious house in Britain

WEST FAÇADE OF ABBEY

•IN 15TH CENTURY DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY VII ABBEY WAS RECONSTRUCTED ON A MORE GRANDER SCALE COVERING A SIMILAR AREA TO THAT OF EDWARD’S AND WAS TALLAR,LIGHTER AND MORE SPACIOUS.•ARCHITECT WAS HENRY DE REYNS WITH HIS NEW GOTHIC STYLE.

.

•The Abbey today still plays an important role to the people of this Nation as well as remaining a place of worship.• Our Kings and Queens continue to be Crowned here and have their funerals here, although they are now buried at St Georges Chapel in Windsor.•Royal weddings held at the Abbey are are recent introduction

Reconstruction of Westminster in 1585 by Peter Jackson

•The focal point of the new abbey was the Church which was dedicated to St Peter and similar in area to the present building.• It was built in the Norman-French style

THE CLOISTER AT WESTMINSTER

ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES

FLYING BUTTRESS SUPPORTING THE NAVE FROM THE CLOISTER

The soaring height of the roof and the narrowness of the nave are typical features from FranceThe long nave and broad trancepts are thoroughly English, as are the mouldings of the arches and sculptured stone of polished Purbeck stone

The magnificent Chapter House

The Chapter House at Westminster is the second largest in the country after Lincoln, but Westminster's was by far the most important.

The reconstructed vaulted roof in the Chapter House

1) The revolutionary flying buttresses made it possible to support the roof more than 100 feet above the ground without needing massively thick walls.

SECTION OF CHURCH

2) The Lady Chapel at the east end was a later addition to the abbey. It has an astonishing fan-vaulted ceiling.

3 )At the west end, the grey stone towers by Nicholas Hawksmoor, were not completed until 1745.

4)The visitors' entrance is in the North trancept under the rose window. Once inside, the high altar can be seen directly ahead at the heart of the abbey, and in front is the intricate Cosmati marble pavement. One of the Latin inscriptions here states that the world will end after 19,683 years.

5)The windows in the nave have been dedicated to famous people over the years

6) Outside the west door is a circular memorial to victims of oppression, violence and war, and just inside is the Grave of the Unknown Warrior.

Westminster Abbey has not in fact been an abbey since Henry VIII and the 'dissolution of the monasteries', and although the name is still used, it is more correct to call the building a church (cathedral-sized).

TRANSEPT OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY

GROINED VAULTING AND STAINED GLASS ROSE WINDOWS

PLAN

LAYOUT OF THE PLAN(2008)

•To the sides are blind arcading, remains of 14th-century paintings and numerous stone benches above which are innovatory large 4-light quatre-foiled windows. •The chapter house has an original mid-13th century tiled pavement.• A door within the vestibule dates from around 1050 and is believed to be the oldest in England. •The exterior includes flying buttresses added in the 14th century and a leaded tent-lantern roof on an iron frame designed by Scott.

QUTRE-FOILED

NORTH SIDE OF THE ABBEY

PORTAL

THE GRAND CHAPTER HOUSE

•The Chapter house was built concurrently with the east parts of the abbey under Henry III, between about 1245 and 1253.• It was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1872.•The entrance is approached from the east cloister walk and includes a double doorway with a large tympanum above. •Inner and outer vestibules lead to the octagonal chapter house, which is of exceptional architectural purity. •It is built in a Geometrical Gothic style with an octagonal crypt below.• A pier of eight shafts carries the vaulted ceiling.

TILES ON FLOOR

The chapter house has an original mid-13th century tiled pavement.

CLOISTER AND GARTH

Aristocrats were buried inside chapels and monks and people associated with the Abbey were buried in the Cloisters and other areas.

NAVE

NORTH ENTRANCE

NORTH ENTRANCE VISITORS’ GATE

A statue of Virgin Mary, holding the child Jesus, above the Great North

Door at Westminster Abbey

The abbey was built in the reign of henry VII and richard II added a perpendicular gothic style dedicated to blessed Virgin Mary

WEST FACADE

•The Abbey's two western towers were built between 1722 and 1745 by Nicholas Hawksmoor, constructed from Portland stone to an early example of a Gothic Revival design.• Purbeck marble was used for the walls and the floors of Westminster Abbey, even though the various tombstones are made of different types of marble. •Further rebuilding and restoration occurred in the 19th century under Sir George Gilbert Scott.