Achurch has stood on the site of St Paul’s Cathedral in London since 604 CE. The original building is now completely lost, with very little historical record left to help historians and archaeologists determine what the first religious structure would have looked like. However, it is known that the initial wooden structure at the consecrated site was destroyed by the Vikings in 962 CE, while subsequent incarnations of St Paul’s burned to the ground, in around 1087 and during the Great Fire of London in 1666. After the cathedral’s encounter with this devastating fire, King Charles II appointed the architect Christopher Wren to design and rebuild St Paul’s for what would be the final time.
Wren already had a connection with the cathedral as he had been advising on how best to conserve and repair the ageing building, in an unofficial capacity, since 1661. The new building, designed by Wren, began to come to life in 1675 and took 35 years to be completed. The result was an architectural masterpiece in the English Baroque style that came to be popular during the Stuart era. While the earlier buildings on the site suffered irreparable damage through the ages, Wren’s St Paul’s has truly stood the test of time enduring an attempted bombing by the Suffragettes in 1913 and miraculously surviving the Blitz of 1940. The cathedral has since served as the site of significant events of commemoration and celebration, including the royal wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales (now Charles III) and his first wife Lady Diana Spencer, as well as the state funerals of historic figures such as Horatio Nelson, the Duke of Wellington and Winston Churchill. St Paul’s Cathedral remains one of London’s most iconic landmarks known for its magnificent dome that towers over the city.