Westminster Abbey Westminster Palace in a building on the Thames in the London borough of Westminster, where the meeting of the British Parliament. It connects to Trafalgar Square street Uatholl.

Initially, until 1529, he served as the seat of the capital of the English kings. After the fire of 16 October 1834 the palace rebuilt on neo-gothic project Ch.Berri O.U.N and Augustus Pugin. From the medieval Palace of Westminster survived reception hall (1097) and the Tower of Jewels (built to hold treasury Edward III).

In the palace of 1200 rooms, 100 staircases and 5 kilometers of corridors. From the palace towers the most famous clock tower Big Ben - symbol of Great Britain. Victoria Tower above two meters, its height m In 1987, the palace and the nearby Church of St. Margaret ( ) were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Since the time of the coronation in 1066 by William the Conqueror here on the coronation chair, crowned British kings and queens. In addition, the walls of the Abbey kept the ashes of many English monarchs, as well as many prominent figures of the English past - the cultural, military and political.

Westminster Abbey is considered the main national shrine of England, a position strengthened by the fact that during World War II, it is not just fall bombs dropped from aircraft, but they could not cause Westminster Abbey any significant damage.

The building of the chapter Chapter house was built between 1245 and 1253 years, and renovated in This building in the neo-Gothic octagonal. In the middle is a thin beam of marble columns that support the arch. Originally there were going to Benedictine monks, and later - Curia Regis, the predecessor of the parliament (in 1257) and the House of Commons (at the end of the XIV century), and then, before restoration in the XIX century, the building housed the state archives.

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