St Paul's Cathedral

About St Paul's Cathedral

Cathedral in the City of London, England, UK

St Paul's Cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of London, the seat of its bishop and the most famous dome in Britain. It crowns Ludgate Hill, the highest point of the City of London, on a site where churches have stood since AD 604. After the Great Fire of 1666 destroyed the old Gothic cathedral, Sir Christopher Wren designed the present English Baroque building, constructed between 1675 and 1710 and finished within his lifetime. The dome rises 111 metres; the cathedral was London's tallest building from 1710 to 1963 and its dome remains among the highest in the world, while by floor area it is the second-largest church in the United Kingdom after Liverpool Cathedral. Inside, visitors climb to the Whispering Gallery, where a murmur carries across the dome, and on to the outer galleries with wide views over the Thames and the City; the crypt below holds the tombs of Admiral Nelson, the Duke of Wellington and Wren himself. The cathedral has framed great moments of British history: the funerals of Nelson, Wellington and Winston Churchill, Queen Victoria's jubilee celebrations, the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in 1981, and peace services at the end of both world wars. For Muslim visitors it is above all an architectural masterpiece and landmark of the London skyline, best photographed from the Millennium Bridge and from the free roof terrace of One New Change opposite.

Where:

London, United Kingdom