Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey is the most historically significant church in England, a Gothic abbey church of great beauty that has been the setting for the coronation of every English and British monarch since William the Conqueror in 1066 and contains the tombs and memorials of kings, queens, statesmen, scientists, poets and composers in a density of historical association unmatched by any other building in Britain. The current Gothic church was begun by Henry III in 1245 and developed over the following centuries into one of the finest Gothic buildings in England, its soaring nave, elaborate chapels and the extraordinary collection of medieval royal tombs in the chapel of Edward the Confessor constituting a national monument of the highest importance.
The coronation tradition at Westminster Abbey is unbroken for over nine centuries, every sovereign from William I to the present day having been crowned in the abbey on the Coronation Chair that has housed the Stone of Destiny since Edward I's conquest of Scotland in 1296. The setting of royal coronation, royal marriages and state funerals in the abbey makes it the most theatrically significant building in the country, the physical setting for the ceremonial moments that mark the continuity of the British monarchy and state.
The medieval royal tombs in the Henry VII Lady Chapel and the chapel of Edward the Confessor are among the finest collections of medieval funerary sculpture in Europe. The effigies of Henry III, Eleanor of Castile, Edward I and their successors, many in painted and gilded wood or alabaster of exceptional quality, provide a direct and remarkable connection with the medieval monarchs whose reigns defined the development of medieval England.
Poets' Corner in the south transept contains memorials to the greatest writers in the English language from Chaucer to the present, providing a literary dimension that complements the royal and political history of the building.