Westminster Abbey: Medievalism, Architecture, and Tourist Attraction

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of Westminster Abbey, a prominent historical site in England, exploring its origins, architectural styles, and enduring cultural significance. The essay delves into the abbey's history, from its establishment to its current status, highlighting its role as a religious center, burial site, and place of coronation for British monarchs. It examines the architectural evolution of the abbey, including the Gothic style and the contributions of various renovations. Furthermore, the essay discusses the abbey's importance as a tourist attraction, emphasizing its appeal to visitors interested in medieval art, historical artifacts, and religious services. The author incorporates insights from travel blogs and visitor experiences to illustrate the abbey's impact on modern culture. The essay concludes by summarizing the key points and emphasizing the enduring fascination with medieval architecture and history, particularly as exemplified by Westminster Abbey.

Running head: ANCIENT HISTORY
ANCIENT HISTORY
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Introduction
Medievalism has been surrounded throughout the globe still in the current era. The world
is surrounded with beautiful and fascinating structures and architectures from the middle ages
which still tends to find its meaning in the western culture. Numerous of the buildings and the
historical sites have been developed and constructed within the era of 500 CE to 1500 CE. These
buildings and the historical sites are still under the preservation by the government of the nation
and have successfully transferred to heritage places for the tourists for attracting visitors
throughout the world (pixeltocode.uk, 2019). The essay targets to analyze and illustrate the
medieval historical site, Westminster Abbey, the city of Westminster in England.
Discussion
Westminster Abbey is one of the famous buildings with religious origins in the world. It
has been serving an important role in the social, political and the cultural affairs of the British or
more than 1000 years. Formerly titled a collegiate church of Saint Peter at Westminster, it is one
of the most notable religious building and the traditional place for the burial site and the
coronation for British and the English monarchs (pixeltocode.uk, 2019).
As per the historical context, founded in the site of Thorn Island, the construction of the
present church began in 1245 as per the orders of the king Henry III. The abbey was decided to
be rebuild in a new gothic styled of architecture ("What Are The Best Things to See at
Westminster Abbey?", 2019). The abbey was aimed to be designed not only as a great monastery
and the place for worship but also the place for the burial and the coronation of the monarchs.
This historical building was the Benedictine monastic church until the church was
dissolved in the year 1539. Between the years 1540 to 1556, the abbey had the status of a

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cathedral which got dissolved in the year 1560. On the year 1560, the building gained the status
of Church of England, the royal peculiar.
In the current time, the abbey stand glorious with all the history and the traces of the
Edward monastery that can be seen today as round arches and massive supportive columns. One
of the new and remarkable addition to the abbey is the glorious Lady Chapel build by King
Henry VII, with spectacular fan, vaulted roof and craftsmanship of Italian sculptures (Zhang,
2013). The abbey has been renovated and altered by the passage of time and reconstructed by the
government of the state for the display of the historical heritage to the tourist and the visitors
(pixeltocode.uk, 2019). Further reconstruction was done to the abbey when the western towers
were finished for designing Nicholas hawks moor. Further renovation of the architecture and the
glass works have thoroughly affected the status of the abbey as the authentic historical site. This
is because very little remains of the original medical architecture and glasses are there in the
abbey currently.
The Westminster Abbey encourages the tourism and attracts visitors with its daily pattern
of the worship which is offered to the glory of god (Irimiás & Michalkó, 2013). The tourist get to
visit special services, representatives of the wide spread of the social concern, interest that are
held on a regular basis. The abbey encourages the tourists towards the stunning gothic structure
that still stands today. The abbey attracts its visitor with the promise of remarkable medieval art
that includes England’s oldest altarpiece, the 13th century ratable of Westminster which is painted
with religious imagery that also includes the images of the abbey patron saint of web minster
(Merritt, 2016). Another attraction for the tourist and the visitors for this historical site is the
outstanding medieval artefacts in the coronation chair of the king Edward II.

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The personal ideas of the author of the essay merges with the experience of the actual
visitors of this abbey by illustrations from the travelling blogs and webpages focusing travel
experience of the world travelers and history lovers. The abbey offers some of the stunning
views and some of its major attraction for the tourist includes the history of the royalty and the
burial of the famous people in the abbey (Knighton & Mortimer, 2018). Furthermore, the
collection of the religious art including marvelous wall paintings, remarkable Cosmati Pavement
and the glass windows are some of the famous attraction. The oil paintings, the stained queen’s
glass are some of the factors that the abbey boar on and encourage and supports the tourism with
(Bagnoli, 2015). While visiting the abbey, some of the interesting places within that the tourist
can explore with all the fascinating history includes the poet’s corner, the lady chapel, the royal
tombs, the quire, the cloisters, the chapter house, the magnificent abbey garden including the
beautiful flowers, the PyX Chambers and the modern martyrs.
Conclusion
From the above essay it can thus be concluded that the world is surrounded with beautiful
and fascinating structures and architectures from the middle ages which still tends to find its
meaning in the western culture. Numerous of the buildings and the historical sites have been
developed and constructed within the era of 500 CE to 1500 CE. While there are numerous of
constructions and architectural examples from the medieval era, the essay highlights over the
Westminster Abbey of the city of Westminster in England. The essay explains the history of the
abbey and its current situation, the major attraction of the abbey. The essay furthermore
highlights how this historical site fulfill the purpose of the display to the tourists as one of the
famous historical sites of the world.

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References
Bagnoli, L. (2015). «Downton Abbey» and the TV-induced Tourism. Almatourism-Journal of
Tourism, Culture and Territorial Development, 6(4), 102-116.
Irimiás, A., & Michalkó, G. (2013). Religious tourism in Hungary–an integrative
framework. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin, 62(2), 175-196.
Knighton, C. S., & Mortimer, R. (2018). Westminster Abbey Reformed: 1540–1640. Routledge.
Merritt, J. F. (2016). Reinventing Westminster Abbey, 1642–1660: a house of kings from
revolution to restoration. The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 67(1), 122-138.
pixeltocode.uk, P. (2019). History of Westminster Abbey | Westminster Abbey. Retrieved from
https://www.westminster-abbey.org/about-the-abbey/history/history-of-westminster-
abbey
What Are The Best Things to See at Westminster Abbey?. (2019). Retrieved from
https://www.goldentours.com/travelblog/inside-knowledge-tips-for-visiting-westminster-
abbey
Zhang, Y. (2013, August). Study on the main characteristics and development countermeasures
of creative tourism. In 2013 International Conference on Education, Management and
Social Science (ICEMSS-13). Atlantis Press.

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