Westminster Abbey

Overview

Westminster Abbey is a Gothic church in central London, England, and the coronation church of the English and later British monarchy. Every coronation since 1066 has taken place here. The abbey holds daily Christian services, including sung evensong, and contains the shrine of St Edward the Confessor along with the graves of monarchs, poets, and scientists. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Present

Westminster Abbey is an active church with several services each day, including choral evensong sung by the abbey choir. It is a Royal Peculiar, a church that answers directly to the monarch rather than to a bishop, and it is governed by its Dean and Chapter. The abbey continues to host the great ceremonies of the British state: coronations, royal weddings, royal funerals, and national services of thanksgiving and remembrance. The Grave of the Unknown Warrior, holding the body of an unidentified British soldier of the First World War, lies at the west end of the nave and serves as a national place of remembrance. A museum in the abbey's medieval triforium, a gallery high above the nave, displays objects from the abbey's history.

Religious Significance

Westminster Abbey has been a place of Christian worship for over a thousand years. It began as a Benedictine monastery, a community of monks living under the rule of St Benedict, and daily prayer has continued on the site from its monastic centuries into its present life as a working church. At the heart of the abbey lies the shrine of St Edward the Confessor, the 11th-century English king who built the first great church on the site and was declared a saint in 1161. His shrine survived the English Reformation, the 16th-century break with the pope under King Henry VIII, and still contains the saint's remains. Medieval kings chose to be buried close to the shrine, to rest near the saint.

The abbey is also where the religious rite of coronation takes place. The monarch is anointed with holy oil and crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the senior bishop of the Church of England, in a Christian service whose core elements go back to the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066.

History & Structure

Westminster Abbey is located on a site where a Benedictine monastery existed by the 10th century. King Edward the Confessor built a large stone church here, consecrated in 1065, shortly before the Norman conquest of England. The present church was begun in 1245 under King Henry III, who rebuilt it in the Gothic style as a setting for the shrine of Edward the Confessor and for coronations and royal burials. The nave was completed over the following centuries, and the Lady Chapel of Henry VII, with its fan-vaulted ceiling, was finished in 1516 at the east end. The two western towers were completed in 1745. The monastery was closed in 1540, when King Henry VIII dissolved England's monasteries, and the church later came under the direct authority of the crown. A visitor sees a Gothic church of pale stone with twin west towers, flying buttresses, and a long, high nave rising about 31 meters. More than 3,300 people are buried in the abbey, most of them beneath the floor and in vaults. Many others who are buried elsewhere are commemorated with memorials. Westminster Abbey was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, together with the Palace of Westminster and St Margaret's Church.

Additional Resources

• Official website: Westminster Abbey
• UNESCO: Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey including Saint Margaret's Church
• Book: Westminster Abbey by Richard Jenkyns (2004)