Скачать или смотреть Visit to WESTMINSTER ABBEY LONDON - Travel VLogs by Travel Guide

Westminster Abbey formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster is a large mainly Gothic abbey church in the City of Westminster London England just to the west of the Palace of Westminster It is one of the United Kingdom s most notable religious buildings and the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English and later British monarchs The building itself was a Benedictine monastic church until the monastery was dissolved in 1539 Between 1540 and 1556 the abbey had the status of a cathedral Since 1560 the building is no longer an abbey or a cathedral having instead the status of a Church of England Royal Peculiar a church responsible directly to the sovereign
According to a tradition first reported by Sulcard in about 1080 a church was founded at the site then known as Thorn Ey Thorn Island in the seventh century at the time of Mellitus a Bishop of London Construction of the present church began in 1245 on the orders of King Henry III Since the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066 all coronations of English and British monarchs have been in Westminster Abbey There have been 16 royal weddings at the abbey since 1100 As the burial site of more than 3 300 persons usually of predominant prominence in British history including at least sixteen monarchs eight Prime Ministers poets laureate actors scientists and military leaders and the Unknown Warrior Westminster Abbey is sometimes described as Britain s Valhalla after the iconic burial hall of Norse mythology46