ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL

A masterpiece of architect Christopher Wren, who was responsible for its reconstruction after the Great Fire of 1666, the current cathedral is in fact the fifth cathedral built on this site since the construction of the first church dedicated to Saint Paul in 604. It was the first Anglican cathedral in 1534 and its choir has served as a reference for all Anglican churches in the country. The restoration of the cathedral was decided shortly before the fire and finally it was its reconstruction that began in 1675 and was completed in 1710. Wren has already proposed restoration plans and he sees the end of the work when he is almost 80 years old, in other words it is his life's work. He is buried there. The plan of the church is in the shape of a cross, you enter through the vast nave which opens the view on the dome and the choir. The architecture is largely inspired by the Italian Renaissance and the Baroque. Its majestic dome stands proudly in the middle of La City, its white stone sparkling in the sun. Wren had in mind a dome that could be seen from far away, but he also wanted the interior paintings to be visible from the cathedral floor. He therefore built two domes, an interior, of which only the concave part can be seen, and an exterior, of which only the convex part can be seen. This dome is accessed by an endless staircase leading to a gallery, the Whispering Gallery. Its name comes from a resonance phenomenon that makes it possible to hear a whispered whisper on the other side. Another series of steps and a staircase later, you will reach the second gallery, the stone gallery and finally the gold gallery, this time outside the cathedral and offering a 360° view of the capital. The effort (530 steps all the same) is worth it, especially in good weather, because you are overlooking the city centre. The cathedral rises 110 m, or 365 feet. Finally, discover the basement of the cathedral which houses the crypt, a pantheon of the nation's great men. In the centre of the crypt is the tomb of Admiral Nelson, decorated with a crown carved from the wood of the mast of L'Orient, a French ship destroyed at the Battle of Abukir. In the painters' corner are the graves of Turner, Reynolds and Lawrence, as well as monuments dedicated to Constable, Van Dyck and William Blake. At the far east end, the chapel of the Order of the British Empire was built to pay tribute to the veterans of the First World War.