Portrait: Britain’s longest-reining monarch, great and exemplary European, conciliator, beacon of stability, constancy, integrity, conscientiousness, Britishness, solid as a rock, institution, inspiration and companion of generations of people around the globe: Queen Elizabeth II and the end of an era

19 September 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Portrait Reading Time:  31 minutes

Queen Elizabeth II in 2015 © Joel Rouse/Ministry of Defence

Queen Elizabeth II in 2015 © Joel Rouse/Ministry of Defence

Elizabeth II was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during her life and served as monarch of 15 of them at the time of her death. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days is the longest of any British monarch and the longest recorded of any female head of state in history.   read more…

Canterbury Cathedral in England

4 February 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  15 minutes

© Hans Musil/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Hans Musil/cc-by-sa-4.0

Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. It forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby, leader of the Church of England and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Its formal title is the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ at Canterbury. Founded in 597, the cathedral was completely rebuilt between 1070 and 1077. The east end was greatly enlarged at the beginning of the 12th century and largely rebuilt in the Gothic style following a fire in 1174, with significant eastward extensions to accommodate the flow of pilgrims visiting the shrine of Thomas Becket, the archbishop who was murdered in the cathedral in 1170. The Norman nave and transepts survived until the late 14th century when they were demolished to make way for the present structures. Before the English Reformation the cathedral was part of a Benedictine monastic community known as Christ Church, Canterbury, as well as being the seat of the archbishop.   read more…

Westminster Abbey in London

1 August 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, London Reading Time:  25 minutes

Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, seen from London Eye © Tebbetts

Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, seen from London Eye © Tebbetts

Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, is a large, mainly Gothic abbey church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United Kingdom’s most notable religious buildings and the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English and, later, British monarchs. The building itself was a Benedictine monastic church until the monastery was dissolved in 1539. Between 1540 and 1556, the abbey had the status of a cathedral. Since 1560, the building is no longer an abbey or a cathedral, having instead the status of a Church of EnglandRoyal Peculiar“—a church responsible directly to the sovereign.   read more…

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