Officially named the Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, Westminster Abby is, without a doubt, the most famous landmark in the city of London. Its location in the center of London makes the abbey a focal point of the city and an instantly recognizable landmark due to its Gothic design. Over the course of its 200+ year history, Westminster Abby has been the traditional site for coronations and burials of English, British and other monarchs of the Commonwealth realms. At the same time, 16 royal weddings have taken place at the abbey, two of those being for reigning monarchs. Apart from being a place of worship, Westminster Abby is a major tourist attraction in London. The abbey is open from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 9:30 am to seven pm on Wednesday and from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm Saturday with last admittance one hour prior to closing time. The two closest hotels to the abbey are the Grand Residences by Marriott-Mayfair-London and London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square.
According to tradition, Westminster Abby was founded when Mellitus was Bishop of London, but a more likely theory to the founding of the abbey dates to the 960s and the early 970s when St. Dunstan, with backing from King Edgar, installed a community of Benedictine monks on the site. In 1042, Edward the Confessor, the then king of England, ordered the rebuilding of St. Peter's Abbey so that he would have a royal burial church. Most of the rebuilding took place between 1042 and 1052, but it would not be fully completed until 1090. However, the abbey was consecrated on December 29th, 1065, just six weeks before the king’s death on January 5th, 1066. Construction on the church that is known today was not begun until 1245, during the reign of Henry III. It was during this time that Westminster was built in the Gothic style and that it became a burial site for kings and other monarchs. On the floor in the centre of the nave, inside the abbey’s great west door, is the tomb of The Unknown Warrior. The tomb is the final resting place of a British soldier killed during the First World War who was buried there on November 11th, 1920. This is the only tomb in Westminster Abbey in which it’s forbidden to step on.
Apart from being the site of coronations and funerals, the abbey became a site for royal weddings, the first taking place on November 11th, 1100 when King Henry I of England married Matilda of Scotland. The most recent royal wedding at the abbey was of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge to Miss Catherine Middleton in April of 2011. It is worth pointing out that in September of 2010, Pope Benedict XVI became the first pope to set foot in the Abbey. In the end, Westminster is an important landmark and is a definite must see when visiting London.
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