Westminster Abbey is one of the best known churches in the world, although technically it is neither a church nor a cathedral. Originally built in 1065 as the Norman Abbey, little remains of this original structure; later additions to the new building include the gothic lower parts, completed in the fifteenth century, and the towers which were added at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The coronation of every British monarch has taken place here since 1066. Today it is still a church dedicated to regular worship and to the celebration of great events in the life of England. It is also the burial place of over 3000 people, including Kings, Queens, statesmen, warriors, scientists, musicians and poets. Little remains of the original medieval stained glass. The great west window and the rose window in the north transept were added in the early eighteenth century, but the remainder of the glass is nineteenth and twentieth century. |