Original St. Paul's Cathedral prior to 1666
From all of the amazing things I have done here in London over the past week, taking a guided tour of St. Paul’s Cathedral has been my absolute favorite. The first picture on this post is a model of the original St. Paul’s Cathedral that was burnt down during the Fire of London in 1666 (the model of the building itself is 100 years old. I took a picture of it at the London Museum). The second picture is the St. Paul’s Cathedral that is present today; the one I toured. It was so nice having a tour guide to give the insightful background and answer any questions you had. He told us that it cost 40 million pounds ($62 million) to clean the cathedral and because of its size it takes 4 years for them to complete the detailed cleaning. You weren’t allowed to take pictures inside of the cathedral. We were, however, allowed to take a picture of the infamous staircase. This staircase that is right off the main entrance has been used in the filming of Sherlock Holmes and the third Harry Potter movie.
The entire interior of the cathedral is astonishing. Christopher Wren (the architect of the building) hired out the best craftsmen in each specialty joining in an elite workforce of brilliance. Every ounce of ceiling and wall was lined in gold leaf and intricately hand carved. The only part of the entire cathedral that has stain-glass is the American Memorial Chapel. This chapel was added as a memorial and reminder of gratitude for the U.S. and their contribution to the ending of World War II. In the stain-glass each state is represented with a seal and then along the wooden interlays each state bird and flower was carved. The Utah tile is of a beehive and reads “Industry 1847” over it. Our tour guide was not familiar with Utah, so it was our chance to introduce ourselves and hopefully leave a memorable impression. That part of the Cathedral was patriotic. In a case were the names of all the American soldiers that were stationed in England during that time. This year England recognizes that it has been 70 years since the World War II Blitz and bombings that devastated the city of London. St. Paul’s Cathedral had a crew on the roof 24 hours a day during the Blitz to protect their beloved building. On Dec. 29th 1940 28 bombs landed on the roof of St. Paul’s Cathedra and because of the crew finding and disposing of the bombs in time there was no detrimental effect on the building. Our tour guide said that it is one of the few buildings that was saved from destruction during the Blitz.
My professor, a doctor of religious studies, knew of some pretty special things that were placed in the cathedral. He in fact knew more about them than the tour guide. In a little corner that would have been easily passed over was a stone that had an imprint of the Rosetta symbol on it. The stone had been found by some archeologists in Jerusalem and is indeed one that was from Herrod’s temple. Another piece of stone that was right below it was a stone that came from Calvary (the place of the Savior’s crucifixion). When everyone started to walk away I couldn’t help myself and had to touch them both. From the excitement in my professor’s voice and knowledge of their origin, I knew they were significant and represented much more than stone.
Part of our tour was walking up what seemed to be thousands of stairs to get to the top of the dome and overlook London. There were actually three levels of domes. One of these pictures shows a glass box that was at the top of all the stairs. When looking through the glass you can see the very bottom floor of the Cathedral. The view from the top of the dome was astounding; you could see the entire city of London. The cathedral was a beautiful holy place that had many things of sentimental value to beliefs of all Christians.
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