Abbey to make history once more

On Saturday, 70 years after the last such occasion, Westminster Abbey will once again witness the crowning of a British monarch, as nine months after the death of Queen Elizabeth II and her funeral at the same location, the coronation ceremony for her oldest son, King Charles III, will take place.

It will be the 39th such ceremony at the venue, in a line dating back nearly 1,000 years.

In that time, the abbey building has changed as much as the city around it, but the site holds a unique place in the history of Britain, and is steeped in national heritage.

Records indicate that the first abbey building dated back to the seventh century.

It was on Christmas Day 1066 that it established its place in the national story, with its first coronation, of King William the Conqueror, the first new king after the Battle of Hastings and the Norman conquest of England.

Construction of the current Abbey, which holds around 2,200 people, began in 1245, on the orders of King Henry III.

In addition to its many coronations, Westminster Abbey has also been the setting for 16 royal weddings, with the first one being King Henry I in 1100, and the most recent being Prince William, now the heir to King Charles's throne, in April 2011.

In 1947, the then-Princess Elizabeth was married at the Abbey, six years before she was crowned there, the most recent coronation ceremony — until now.

Her coronation is widely regarded as being the event that ushered in the television age in the United Kingdom, with many families getting their first set to watch the event, which was shown all over the world.

The coronation of King Charles will be the first of the digital age, with numerous broadcasters from around the world showing it on a host of platforms, and with big screens showing the ceremony live across the UK.

The Abbey also has other non-royal historic connections.

On Armistice Day in 1920, an unidentified soldier's body, recovered from the World War 1 battlefields of France, was buried in the tomb of the Unknown Warrior, to symbolize the universality of loss and death in conflict.

Many of the country's greatest minds are also honored in the Abbey, through statues, memorial plaques, and graves.

Scientists Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin are buried here, and so are the ashes of Stephen Hawking.

Poets' Corner is a place to commemorate some of the country's greatest writers and artistic talents.

Writers Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Lewis Carroll, and Charles Dickens, actor Laurence Olivier, and ballet dancer Margot Fonteyn are just some of the names honored here.

Over the centuries, few places in the country have been the setting for as many events of national significance and tribute as Westminster Abbey.

Saturday will see another page written in its rich history.