Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey, national church of the United Kingdom, near the Houses of Parliament, in central London. It was built between the 13th and the 16th centuries, originally as the church of a Benedictine abbey, and was refounded as the Collegiate Church of St Peter by Elizabeth I in 1560. The coronation of English monarchs, since that of William the Conqueror in 1066, has taken place at Westminster. It is also the burial place of many English monarchs up to the time of George II, after which they were buried at Windsor Castle.

The present church, begun in 1245 under Henry III, was built on the site of an older church, consecrated in 1065, that itself stood on the site of a monastery. It is built in a Gothic style that, in the height and verticality of the nave, the rose windows, fine fan vaulting, and flying buttresses, shows strong French influence. Among architects who worked on the church in the medieval period were the Frenchman Henry de Reyns, John of Gloucester, Robert of Beverly, and Henry Yevele. The western towers, built by Nicholas Hawksmoor and John James, were added in 1739-1745.

The interior of Westminster Abbey contains fine 13th-century sculpture, and effigies in bronze or stone. Henry VII's chapel, built 1503-1519, contains the tomb of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, his wife. One of the most historic items is the Coronation Chair, which stands in the Chapel of Edward the Confessor; it was constructed to hold the Stone of Scone, the coronation stone of the Scottish kings, which Edward I seized in 1297 as a symbolic gesture to mark Scotland's subservience as a vassal of England.

The tombs of famous English people, such as the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, the physicist Sir Isaac Newton, and the naturalist Charles Darwin, are located in the main part of the abbey. There are also monuments to prominent political figures and, in the four bays and isles comprising Poets' Corner, tributes to William Shakespeare and other outstanding literary personages. The abbey, together with the neighbouring medieval church of St Margaret and the Houses of Parliament, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

In late 2005 archaeologists using ground-penetrating radar equipment found evidence of what is believed to have been the original burial tomb of Edward the Confessor, along with several other chambers, graves, and coffins. They were located in the vicinity of a shrine dedicated to the English saint and the ornate Cosmati mosaic paving, which dates from 1268 and is located in front of the high altar.