St. Paul's Cathedral

The current building of St. Paul's Cathedral in London is the fourth to stand on the site. The first Romanesque church was built in 604 but burned down in a fire. A second building was constructed at the end of the 7th century but was plundered and destroyed during a Viking raid in the 10th century. The third cathedral, built from 1087 to 1310, was completely destroyed during the Great Fire of London in 1666. The fourth and more monumental building of St. Paul's Cathedral was constructed between 1675 and 1710 under the guidance of the project's chief architect, Sir Christopher Wren, who created his greatest masterpiece. The majestic dome and the impressive facade have become new symbols of London. It is the only cathedral in the world to be completed within the architect's lifetime, as buildings of such scale usually took hundreds of years to build. St. Paul's Cathedral in London was officially opened in 1708. Wren died in 1723 and was buried inside the cathedral, which became his monument.

The cathedral was damaged during the heavy bombings in 1940 but was fully restored after World War II.

St. Paul's Cathedral in London is designed in the shape of a Latin cross - with a central nave and south and north transepts. Interestingly, the building is single-storied, but the facade features a false second tier to conceal the support structures.

Besides the main nave, St. Paul's Cathedral has two side transepts - the south and the north. Their facades feature semicircular antique porticos. The east facade of the church is a semicircular two-story apse with three arched windows. The most striking is the cathedral's central facade, which consists of two tiers. The lower portico is supported by six pairs of Corinthian columns, and the upper by four pairs. The portico is crowned with a triangular pediment with a bas-relief depicting the biblical scene of "Paul's Conversion". Huge statues of the apostles Peter, Paul, James, and the four evangelists are set above the portico. The side entrance portals have semicircular arched gates, each adorned with five columns.

In line with Anglican traditions, the cathedral's interior was originally very austere. However, in 1860, a special fund was established to finance the interior decoration of St. Paul's Cathedral. As a result, the cathedral received exquisite mosaics and sculptures, delicate metal grilles, and intricately made wooden pews.

Under the dome of the Cathedral, there are 3 galleries: the inner Whispering Gallery and the outer Stone and Golden Galleries. The Whispering Gallery owes its name to an architectural feature of its acoustics, where even a whisper at one end of the gallery can be clearly heard at the other end. The bell towers of the Cathedral house 17 bells, 13 in the northwest tower and 4 (including the Great Paul and Great Tom bells) in the southwest tower.

The dome, which was not part of the original project and was added by the wish of King Charles II, has become one of London's main attractions. It almost completely replicates the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, including an outer gallery offering a magnificent panorama of London.

The dome's construction is highly complex, using unconventional combinations of building materials and structures, which allowed it to survive the bombings of London during World War II.

St. Paul's Cathedral serves as the final resting place for nearly two hundred prominent British citizens. This tradition dates back to the previous cathedrals, with Anglo-Saxon kings buried in the first and second cathedrals. The first to be honored with burial in the new St. Paul's Cathedral was its architect, Christopher Wren. His grave does not have a monument, but carries the Latin epitaph: "Reader, if you seek a monument, look around you".

Among others buried in the cathedral are poet Nahum Tate, Admiral Horatio Nelson; engineer John Rennie; the Duke of Wellington; composer Sir Arthur Sullivan; Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence; artist Sir William Llewellyn; bacteriologist Sir Alexander Fleming; and artist and sculptor Henry Spencer Moore.