Collegiate Church of St. Peter in Westminster, better known as Westminster Abbey, the traditional place of coronation and burial place of the kings of Britain. According to legend, the first Church was founded on the place where one fisherman had a vision of St. Peter. Since then, the Abbey receives every year a salmon as a gift from the London Guild of fishermen. In 960-970 G. St. Dunstan with the support of king Edgar founded on the site of a Benedictine monastery.

Between 1042 and 1052 Edward the Confessor begins the reconstruction of the Abbey of St. Peter, t.to. needed a Church that would serve the Royal tomb. The Cathedral was consecrated on 28 December 1065, only a week before the death of Edward. He was buried in the Cathedral, and after nine years next to him was buried his wife Edita. His successor, Harold II, probably, were crowned in this Cathedral, although records were kept only of the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066. The only image of the Cathedral of those times is the Bayeux tapestry. The construction of the temple in its present form began in 1245 Henry III, who decided to honor the memory of Edward the Confessor the highest Gothic nave in England, and at the same time chose the Cathedral the tomb. The construction continued for another three hundred years. The Abbey possessed great political and economic influence, by income level second only to Glastonbury. Henry VIII granted the Abbey the status of a Cathedral, and it saved Westminster from destruction and ruin. The status of the Cathedral was at the Cathedral just before 1550, and, apparently, it was at this time in England there was a saying "Rob Peter to pay Paul" - money that was intended for Westminster Abbey, went into the Treasury of the Cathedral of St. Paul's in London.

Two Western towers were added to the Cathedral in 1722, 1745, G., and represent a fine example of neo-Gothic architecture.

In addition to the coronation, Westminster Abbey is the traditional venue of the Royal wedding, but here he was married only two of the reigning monarch Henry I and Richard II. Recently at Westminster Abbey Prince William the Duke of Cambridge married Catherine Middleton.

Westminster Abbey is the burial place of many famous people of Britain. Here is buried Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, in the Corner poets – Geoffrey Chaucer, Robert burns, Lord Byron, Charles Dickens, John Keats, the Bronte sisters and many others.

In the inner decoration of the Cathedral of the attention, with mosaic floors work Cosmati XIII century, the coronation throne of St. Edward and the frescoes, which date from the late thirteenth century.