Location: Westminster, London, England Date completed: 1090 (Consecrated 28th December 1065) Designers: commissioned by Edward the Confessor Function: Religious Structure

Surely no other building is so integral to British culture, so entwined in our heritage, as Westminster Abbey. Here, close to the Palace of Westminster, lie seventeen of our monarchs and some 3,300 of our most significant citizens. All our monarchs since 1066 have been crowned within its walls. Apart from its historical importance, Westminster Abbey is a church of great beauty and splendour, one of the most important Gothic buildings in Britain.

Tradition has it that the Abbey had its origins in the 7th century AD, when a fisherman saw a vision of St Peter close to the site of the present Abbey. In the late 10th century, St Dunstan founded a Benedictine community here. Sometime between 1042 and 1052 Edward the Confessor began rebuilding the Abbey of St Peter. It was not completed until 1090, but was consecrated on 28th December 1065, a week before Edward's death. Henry III (1216-1272) rebuilt the Abbey, much as we know it today, in the Anglo-French Gothic style, as a shrine to Edward the Confessor. Ironically, Henry was crowned first at Gloucester, as the Abbey was in the hands of the French king at the time.

During the dissolution of the monasteries in Henry VIII's reign, the Abbey was granted cathedral status, saving it from confiscation. Elizabeth I established the Abbey as a "Royal Peculiar" (that is, directly responsible to the crown) known as the Collegiate Church of St Peter. Between 1722 and 1745 Nicholas Hawksmoor designed and oversaw the construction of the two towers at the Western End that give the Abbey it characteristic appearance.

Many royal weddings have been held in Westminster Abbey, starting in 1100 with the marriage of Henry I to Matilda of Scotland. More recently in 1923 Prince Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI) married Elizabeth Bowes Lyon (later Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother). In 1947 Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) married the Duke of Edinburgh. On 29th April 2011 Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, married Miss Catherine Middleton, whom he had met at St Andrews University.