Westminster Cathedral

From an early age, when i went on yearly holidays to different parts of the United Kingdom with my parents, I have been fed a diet of traditional Norman churches and cathedrals from the middle ages – fantastic architectural achievements created from the blood, seat and tears of generations of architects, masons and labourers. Westminster Cathedral is different, however. In comparison with many other religious buildings in England it is a modern church, having been built in the late 1800’s. But regardless of its lack of age, or maybe because of it, this must still be one of the most unique and impressive buildings I have seen. To give it its full title, The Cathedral Church of Westminster was designed in the Early Christian Byzantine style by the Victorian architect John Francis Bentley. The first stone was laid in 1895 and the construction was completed 8 years later. It was built on a site formerly occupied by a large prison complex and despite much work over the years, the – still impressive – interior decorations and mosaics of the Cathedral remain incomplete. Pope Benedict XVI, the leader of the Catholic Church, visited in 2010.