Westminster Abbey, London

Westminster Abbey is a landmark Gothic church in Westminster, London. There is a long-standing tradition of crowning and burying English monarchs here. There was a shrine on this site around 616, referred to as Thorney Island at the time. It was believed that a fisherman saw a vision of Saint Peter here, and for many centuries thereafter fishermen on the Thames gave salmon as a present to monks. The first mention of an abbey on this site was in the middle of the 11th century. This is when King Edward the Confessor built the abbey. It has been ascertained that there was a Benedictine community of monks here before that. As for the shrine and the vision, no hard proof exists.
King Edward built the abbey as a form of redemption for failure on his part to go on a pilgrimage. He dedicated the abbey to Saint Peter. It was sanctified in 1065. King Edward was buried shortly thereafter. His successor King Harold, the last of the Saxons, was crowned here. This is how the custom came to be.
The original abbey is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry. It was in the Norman style.
The abbey's power and authority increased after the Norman Conquest in 1066. The abbey was restructured in the Gothic style on the order of King Henry III. This was done in honor of Edward the Confessor. The restoration was generally completed during the rule of Richard II. In 1503, Henry VII commissioned a chapel in honor of the Virgin Mary, which was named after him.
During the dissolution of the monasteries, instigated by Henry VIII, the abbey suffered greatly and finally closed down in 1540. It was a cathedral over the next decade. As it was more powerful than the other abbeys in England, it was saved from destruction. The money meant for the abbey was instead diverted to St. Paul's Cathedral, which may have given rise to the expression robbing Peter to pay Paul. Oliver Cromwell was buried in Westminster Abbey in 1658. In 1661 his tomb was removed on the orders of Charles II.
Under the Catholic rule of Queen Mary the Benedictine monks once again took control of the abbey, and subsequently lost it when Queen Elizabeth I came to power. She made it the Collegiate Church of St Peter, directly subordinate to the sovereign instead of the bishopric. This occurred in 1579. From this year on the abbey was headed by a dean instead of an abbot.
Nicholas Hawksmoor constructed the two western towers of the abbey between 1722 and 1745. They exemplify an early Gothic Revival style, unusual for this period of history.
Westminster was the third center of education after Oxford and Cambridge prior to the 19th century. Parts of the King James Bible and the New Testament were translated here.
All English sovereigns were crowned here, except Edward V, Edward VIII and Lady Jane Grey, who didn't have coronation ceremonies. The Archbishop of Caterbury is traditionally minister of the ceremony. The monarchs are crowned on a throne known as St. Edward's Chair.
The original tomb of Edward the Confessor was found in 2005.
Not only monarchs are buried here - this is the final resting place of many distinguished poets, writers and scientists. Among them are Charles Darwin, James Clerk Maxwell, David Livingstone and Isaac Newton. The poets and writers are buried in the South Transept, known as the Poets' Corner. Here lie Ben Jonson, Robert Browning, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Edmund Spenser, Alfred Tennyson and many other literary geniuses.
Westminster Abbey also houses the tomb of the Unknown Warrior, an unidentified British soldier who was killed in WWI. He was buried here in 1920. This tomb has become a symbol of honor to those who gave their lives for England, yet remained unknown to history.