Скачать или смотреть 1854 St Paul’s Cathedral London #7 Jacques Wiener Rarity R1, R2, R4 (scale C - R5)

A cathedral dedicated to Saint Paul has stood on the current Ludgate Hill site since the seventh century. Saint Mellitus arrived in Britain with Saint Augustine on a mission from Pope Gregory the Great and found- ed the original St. Paul's in 604. The early cathedral buildings suffered repeatedly from the vicissitudes of both Viking attacks and fire. A conflagration in 1087 destroyed the church and prompted Bishop Mau- rice, chaplain to William the Conqueror, to initiate the construction of a stone structure that ultimately would stand almost six centuries-now known as Old St. Paul's. Construction continued throughout the twelfth century and into the thirteenth; its consecra- tion took place in 1240. This structure was the larg- est medieval building in England-longer, taller, and wider than the edifice we know today. Three centuries later, the Protestant Reformation in England gradu- ally wrenched the building away from the Catholic Church, fully becoming a house of worship for the Church of England with the installation of its first Bishop of London, Edmund Grindal, in 1559. Shortly thereafter, a 1561 lightning strike caused significant damage that was never fully overcome. Responsibility for the needed restoration work was initially given to famed British architect Inigo Jones, though progress ceased with the advent of the English Civil War in 1642. As is the case with many such structures dur- ing wartime, the cathedral suffered indignities and additional neglect during this conflict. With the res- toration of Charles II in 1660, attention once again re- turned to the cathedral with many of Britain's leading architects wrestling with how to restore the structure. Court architect Christopher Wren devised a plan and had just begun the restoration effort when the Great Fire of London intervened in the early hours of Sep- tember 2, 1666, transforming the "restoration" project into one of rebuilding instead