Its a Church of England

cathedral, the seat of the Bishop

of London and mother church
of the Diocese of London.

It sits at the top of
Ludgate Hill, the
highest point in the
City of London


Its dedication to Paul
the Apostle dates back
to the original church
on this site, founded in
AD 604.



Old St Paul's, was begun by
the Normans after the 1087 fire. A
further fire in 1136 disrupted the
work, and the new cathedral was not
consecrated until 1240. During the
period of construction, the style of
architecture had changed
from Romanesque to Gothic
and


this was reflected in the pointed
arches and larger windows of the
upper parts and East End of the
building. The Gothic ribbed vault
was constructed, like that of York
Minster, of wood rather than stone,
which affected the ultimate fate of
the building.



By the 16th century the building was
starting to decay. Under Henry
VIII and Edward VI, the Dissolution of
the Monasteries and Chantries Acts led
to the destruction of interior
ornamentation and
the cloisters, charnels, crypts, chapels,
shrines, chantries and other buildings in
St Paul's Churchyard


Many of these former
religious sites in the
churchyard, having been
seized by the Crown, were
sold as shops and rental
properties, especially to
printers and booksellers,
who were often Puritans.

. The present church, dating from
the late 17th century, was
designed in the English Baroque
style by Sir Christopher Wren. Its
construction, completed within
Wren's lifetime, was part of a
major rebuilding programme
which took place in the city after
the Great Fire of London





Present St Paul's


The task of designing a replacement
structure was officially assigned to Sir
Christopher Wren on 30 July 1669


He had previously been put in
charge of the rebuilding of
churches to replace those lost in the
Great Fire. More than fifty City
churches are attributable to Wren.
Concurrent with designing St
Paul's, Wren was engaged in the
production of his five Tracts on
Architecture.

Wren had begun advising on the repair
of the Old St Paul's in 1661, five years
before the Great Fire of London in
1666.The proposed work included
renovations to both interior and
exterior that would complement the
Classical facade designed by Inigo
Jones in 1630

In July 1668 Dean William Sancroft
wrote to Christopher Wren that he
was charged by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, in agreement with the
Bishops of London and Oxford, to
design a new cathedral that was
"handsome and noble to all the
ends of it and to the reputation of
the City and the nation".


The design process took several years,
but a design was finally settled and
attached to a royal warrant, with the
proviso that Wren was permitted to
make any further changes that he
deemed necessary.
The result was the present St Paul's
Cathedral, still the second largest
church in Britain and with a dome
proclaimed as the finest in the world.

The building was financed by a tax on
coal, and was completed within its
architect's lifetime, and with many of
the major contractors employed for
the duration.
The "topping out" of the cathedral
(when the final stone was placed on
the lantern) took place on 26 October
1708, performed by Wren's son
Christopher Jr and the son of one of
the masons.


The cathedral was declared
officially complete by
Parliament on 25 December 1711
(Christmas Day). In fact,
construction was to continue for
several years after that, with the
statues on the roof only being
added in the 1720s. In 1716 the
total costs amounted to
1,095,556 (139 million in 2014).


Wren planned to replace the dilapidated
tower with a dome, using the existent
structure as a scaffold. He produced a
drawing of the proposed dome, showing that
it was at this stage at which he conceived the
idea that it should span both nave and aisles
at the crossing.
After the fire, It was at first thought possible
to retain a substantial part of the old
cathedral, but ultimately the entire structure
was demolished in the early 1670s to start
afresh.

After the fire, It was at first
thought possible to retain a
substantial part of the old
cathedral, but ultimately the entire
structure was demolished in the
early 1670s to start afresh.


On 2 December 1697, only thirty-
two years and three months after
the Great Fire destroyed Old St
Paul's, the new cathedral was
consecrated for use.
The Right Reverend Henry
Compton, Bishop of London,
preached the sermon.

It was based on the text of
Psalm 122, "I was glad when
they said unto me: Let us go
into the house of the Lord."
The first regular service was
held on the following
Sunday.


MARY CORREA
2nd English
Cerp del Norte