Tuesday, January 23, 2024

ENGLAND:SCOTLAND (12)

18-12-2023 .. Monday .. LONDON .. continued


The above picture culled from GOOGLE EARTH


WESTMINSTER ABBEY (formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster)

Benedictine monks founded Westminster Abbey in 960AD.   The Abbey is a place that's touched the lives of kings, queens, statesmen and soldiers, poets, priests, heroes and villains since 960AD.  

The Abbey has been the setting for Coronation for English and British monarchs since 1066 and is the final resting place of 17 English, Scottish and British monarchs. 16 royal weddings have taken place at the Abbey since 1100. 

The church was begun by Henry III in 1245. It’s one of the most important Gothic buildings in the country, and has the medieval shrine of an Anglo-Saxon saint at its heart.  Also the resting place of more than 3,000 great Britons.  

Today it is still a church dedicated to regular worship and to the celebration of great events in the life of the nation.   It is neither a cathedral nor a parish church.   It is a "Royal Peculiar" under the jurisdiction of a Dean and Chapter, subject only to the Sovereign and not to any archbishop or bishop.  Hence at times they close some areas off to the public and offer reduced opening hours.

The nave has a floor area of 32000 square feet with a width of 85 feet and a height of 101 feet.  It has two towers with a height of 225 feet each.  Ten bells are there.  

Everyday thousands visit to discover British history.


A Website denotes ..

Westminster Abbey .. An architectural masterpiece, a place of daily worship, deploying the resources of high musical expertise, a burial place of kings, statesmen, poets, scientists, warriors and musicians, is the result of a process of development across the centuries, which represents the response of a monastery and later a post-Reformation church to the stimulus and challenge of its environment. 


Please visit this two links for an elaborate detailed information 

https://www.westminster-abbey.org/history/history-of-westminster-abbey

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_Abbey


We purchased tickets .. 26£(INR2860) being 60+, 29£(INR3190) for son & dinla, per head cost .. and entered into Abbey.  

Before entering took a video clip of the surroundings

as well the Change of Guards

Lady Chapel

It is the burial place of fifteen kings and queens including Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots and what is thought to be the remains of Edward V and Richard Due of York, the "Princes in the Tower". 

Below the central aisle is the Hanoverian vault where George İİ and members of his family are buried. The Stuart vault is in the south aisle where Charles II, William III, Mary II  and Queen Anne lie buried. 

The 16th Century historian John Leland called it “the wonder of the world”.  No doubt at all.  it inspired us and whoever visits.  It’s a glorious example of late medieval architecture with a spectacular fan vaulted ceiling.


Our clicks and video clip on this …

Poets’ Corner

This is a place of pilgrimage for literature lovers. More than 100 poets and writers are buried / have memorials here.  Many of those buried or remembered in Poets' Corner are world-famous, like William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens.

The Shop here sells a range of publications by writers buried or remembered in Poets' Corner - from Shakespeare to Kipling.

We just saw the place.  Didn’t take any photos.


The Quire (Choir)

Westminster Abbey has resounded to music every day for more than a thousand years. We were told that those who come to one of the daily choral services at the Abbey will hear their Choir singing from their stalls in the quire - continuing a tradition dating back to the plainsong chanted by the monks of the 10th-century monastic foundation.

Other stalls are assigned to clergy and officers of the Abbey and to the High Commissioners for the Commonwealth countries when they attend services. The black and white marble floor dates from 1677.

The Westminster Abbey Shop sells a range of products inspired by the architecture and fittings of The Quire.

Took a snap and a video clip.


WEST MINNSTER ABBEY continues ..






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