St. Paul's Cathedral (in London) was the first of the three cathedrals I visited on this trip. On the day I was there a young couple were getting married..... a solumn enough and joyful occasion...... but in ST. PAUL'S????? Yikes!!!! After the ceremony, which was private, of course, all the guests and the couple assembled on the steps leading up to the front and they took a group picture. There were as many tourists looking on as there were wedding guests!!! LOVED the hats!!! Wahoo the British do a formal occasion so well!!!!
I thought I better have a look at the dates and history, since there wasn't time then. Here is what I discovered about St. Paul's - - -
St. Paul's Cathedral, designed by architect Christopher Wren and built between 1675 and 1710, is the fourth church on this site overlooking London. The first wooden structure was built in 604 AD by Mellitus, Bishop of the East Saxons, burned in 675 and rebuilt ten years later (St. Paul's #2) only to be burned again in 962, by the Vikings. In 1016, Viking King Cnut took over the city of London. Later, French Normans took over the city and in 1240 began St. Paul's #3, which was completed in 1300. Restoration on this structure was begun in earnest by Inigo Jones in 1633; but the English Civil War and the (temporary) establishment of the republic in 1649 stopped that. Finally, twenty years after the monarchy was restablished, Wren was commissioned to build the building as it is today
So...... the easy answer is that it was built between 1675-1710...... but that the site had been a place of Christian worship since 604...... staggering.
Pictures were not allowed inside the chruch, so the only pics you will see are the few I took and have already posted of the exterior, which do it no justice, really.
History lesson over for the day, for tomorrow..... Notre Dame in Paris!!!
