Katedral St Paul

Katedral pra-Norman

Senarai 16 "uskup agung" London direkodkan oleh Jocelyne of Furness pada abad ke-12, yang menuntut masyarakat Kristian diasaskan pada abad ke-2 Di bawah legenda Raja Lucius dan para pekudus misi Fagan, Deruvian, Elvanus dan Medwin. Tidak ada satu pun yang dianggap boleh dipercayai oleh ahli sejarah moden tetapi, walaupun teks yang masih hidup bermasalah, sama ada Uskup Restitutus atau  Adelphius di 314 Council of Arles nampaknya berasal dari Londinium. 
Lokasi katedral asal Londinium tidak diketahui. Struktur sekarang St Peter upon Cornhill telah direka oleh Christopher Wren berikutan Kebakaran Besar pada 1666 tetapi ia terletak pada titik tertinggi di kawasan Londinium lama dan Legenda abad pertengahan mengikatnya kepada komuniti Kristian terawal di bandar ini. Pada tahun 1995, bagaimanapun, sebuah bangunan abad ke-5 yang besar dan berhias di Tower Hill digali, yang mungkin menjadi katedral di bandar itu.
Ahli antik zaman Elizabethan William Camden mendakwa bahawa kuil bagi dewi Diana telah berdiri semasa zaman Rom atas tapak yang diduduki oleh Katedral St Paul pada abad pertengahan. Wren melaporkan bahawa dia tidak menemui sebarang kuil sedemikian semasa kerja-kerja membina katedral baru selepas Great Fire, dan hipotesis Camden tidak lagi diterima oleh ahli arkeologi moden.
Bede mencatatkan bahawa dalam AM 604 St Augustine ditahbiskan Mellitus sebagai uskup pertama kepada kerajaan Anglo-Saxon Saxon Timur dan raja mereka, Sæberht. Pakcik dan tuan rumah Sæberht, Æthelberht, raja Kerajaan Kent, membina sebuah gereja yang didedikasikan untuk St Paul di London, sebagai tempat duduk uskup baru.
Diasumsikan, walaupun belum dibuktikan, katedral Anglo-Saxon yang pertama ini berdiri di tempat yang sama seperti abad pertengahan dan katedral yang ada sekarang.
Apabila kematian Sæberht pada kira-kira 616, anak-anak kafirnya mengusir Mellitus dari London, dan Saxon Timur kembali kepada paganisme. Nasib bangunan katedral yang pertama tidak diketahui. Kekristianan dipulihkan di kalangan Saxon Timur pada akhir abad ke-7 dan dianggap bahawa katedral Anglo-Saxon telah dipulihkan atau bangunan baru didirikan sebagai kerusi uskup seperti Cedd, [[Wain (bishop) | Wain] dan Earconwald, yang terakhir dikebumikan di katedral pada tahun 693. Bangunan ini, atau penggantinya, dimusnahkan oleh api pada tahun 962, tetapi dibina semula pada tahun yang sama.
Raja Æthelred the Unready telah dikebumikan di katedral pada kematiannya pada tahun 1016. Katedral itu dibakar, dengan banyak bandar, dalam kebarakan pada tahun 1087, seperti yang tercatat dalam Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

St Paul Lama

Raja Æthelred the Unready telah dikebumikan di katedral pada kematiannya pada tahun 1016. Katedral itu dibakar, dengan banyak bandar, dalam  api di 1087, seperti yang tercatat dalam Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
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Program pembesaran bermula pada tahun 1256. 'Kerja Baru' ini telah disucikan pada 1300 tetapi tidak lengkap sehingga 1314. Semasa tempoh zaman pertengahan yang lalu St Paul telah melebihi panjang hanya oleh Gereja Abbey of Cluny dan pada ketinggian bukitnya hanya oleh Katedral Lincoln dan Gereja St. Mary, Stralsund. Penggalian oleh Francis Penrose pada tahun 1878 menunjukkan bahawa ia adalah 585 kaki (178 m) panjang dan 100 kaki (30 m) lebar (290 feet atau 87m di sepanjang gereja yang merupakan salib dan persimpangan (arkitektur)). Spire itu kira-kira 489 kaki (149 m).
Menjelang abad ke-16 bangunan itu mula merosot. Selepas Reformasi Protestan di bawah  Henry VIII dan  Edward VI, Pembubaran Para Biara dan [[Chantries Acts] Kepada pemusnahan hiasan dalaman dan cloister, charnel, crypt, kapel, shrine,  chantries Dan bangunan lain di St Paul's Churchyard. Banyak bekas laman Katolik di gereja ini, yang telah dirampas oleh Mahkota, dijual sebagai kedai dan harta sewa, terutama kepada pencetak dan penjual buku, yang sering Puritans. Pada tahun 1561 <! - menaikkan salib di salib? - spire telah dimusnahkan oleh kilat, suatu peristiwa yang diambil oleh kedua-dua Protestan dan  Katolik Roma sebagai tanda ketidakpuasan Tuhan pada satu sama lain.
Pada tahun 1630-an sebuah bahagian barat telah ditambah ke bangunan oleh arsitek [[Seni bina klasik]] England, Inigo Jones. Terdapat banyak pengabaian dan penganiayaan bangunan oleh pasukan  Parlemen semasa Perang Saudara Inggeris | Perang Saudara]], dan dokumen dan penganjur lama telah tersebar dan dimusnahkan. Semasa Commonwealth of England | Commonwealth], bangunan-bangunan gereja yang dibakar telah dibekalkan bahan binaan berpakaian siap untuk projek-projek pembinaan, seperti istana bandar Penjaga Tuhan, Rumah Somerset. Ramai orang ditarik ke sudut timur-timur gereja, St Paul's Cross, di mana pengkhotbah terbuka berlaku.
In the Great Fire of London of 1666, Old St Paul's was gutted. While it might have been possible to reconstruct it, a decision was taken to build a new cathedral in a modern style. This course of action had been proposed even before the fire.

St Paul Kini

Tugas merancang struktur gantian secara rasmi ditugaskan kepada Sir Christopher Wren pada 30 Julai 1669. Beliau sebelum ini telah ditugaskan untuk membina semula gereja-gereja untuk menggantikan mereka yang hilang dalam Kebakaran Besar. Lebih daripada  50 gereja-gereja bandar adalah disebabkan oleh Wren. Serentak dengan reka bentuk St Paul, Wren terlibat dalam pengeluaran lima "Tracts"nya pada Seni Bina.
Wren telah mula memberi nasihat mengenai pembaikan 'St Paul Lama' pada tahun 1661, lima tahun sebelum  api pada tahun 1666. Kerja-kerja yang dicadangkan termasuk pengubahsuaian ke pedalaman dan luaran untuk melengkapi fasad kebangkitan semula Klasik yang direka oleh Inigo Jones pada tahun 1630.  Wren merancang untuk menggantikan menara usang dengan kubah, menggunakan struktur sedia ada sebagai perancah. Dia menghasilkan lukisan kubah yang dicadangkan yang menunjukkan ideanya bahawa ia perlu menjangkau nave dan lorong di persimpangan. Selepas Kebakaran Besar, pada mulanya pemikiran mungkin untuk mengekalkan sebahagian besar katedral lama, tetapi akhirnya seluruh struktur telah dirobohkan pada awal 1670an.
Pada bulan Julai 1668, Dean William Sancroft menulis kepada Wren bahawa dia dipertanggungjawabkan oleh Uskup Agung Canterbury, sesuai dengan Uskup London dan Oxford, untuk merancang sebuah katedral baru yang "indah dan mulia kepada semua Hujungnya dan reputasi Kota dan negara ". Proses reka bentuk mengambil beberapa tahun, tetapi reka bentuk akhirnya diselesaikan dan dilampirkan kepada waran diraja, dengan syarat bahawa Wren telah dibenarkan membuat perubahan selanjutnya yang dianggap perlu. Hasilnya adalah Katedral St Paul sekarang, masih gereja kedua terbesar di Britain, dengan kubah yang diisytiharkan sebagai yang terbaik di dunia. Bangunan ini dibiayai oleh cukai ke atas arang batu, dan telah siap dalam tempoh arkiteknya dengan banyak kontraktor utama yang terlibat selama tempoh tersebut.
The "topping out" katedral (ketika batu terakhir ditempatkan di tanglung) berlangsung pada 26 Oktober 1708, yang dilakukan oleh anak Wren Christopher Jr dan anak salah seorang tukang batu. Katedral itu diisytiharkan secara rasmi oleh Parlimen pada 25 Disember 1711 (Hari Krismas). Malah, pembinaan berterusan selama beberapa tahun selepas itu, dengan patung-patung di atas bumbung yang ditambahkan pada 1720-an. Pada 1716 jumlah kos berjumlah £1,095,556 (£147 juta in 2015).

Penyucian

Pada 2 Disember 1697, hanya 32 tahun dan 3 bulan selepas Kebakaran Besar memusnahkan 'St Paul Lama', katedral baru telah disucikan untuk digunakan. The Right Reverend Henry Compton, Uskup London, memberitakan khutbah. Ia didasarkan pada teks Mazmur 122, "Saya gembira apabila mereka berkata kepadaku: Marilah kita pergi ke rumah Tuhan." Perkhidmatan tetap pertama diadakan pada Ahad berikutnya.
Pendapat gereja Wren berbeza, dengan beberapa orang menyukai: "Tanpa, dalam, di bawah, di atas, mata / Diisi dengan kegembiraan yang tidak terkawal", Sementara yang lain membencinya: "... Ada ungkapan Keuskupan tentang ibu-ibu emas, gerbang berat... Mereka tidak biasa, bukan Inggeris...".

Kerosakan perang

Gerbang kediaman itu selamat dari Blitz walaupun terkena bom pada 10 Oktober 1940 dan 17 April 1941. Pemogokan pertama memusnahkan mezbah yang tinggi, sementara mogok kedua di transept utara meninggalkan lubang di atas lantai di atas kubur. Bom terakhir dipercayai telah meletup di bahagian atas atas di atas transept utara dan daya itu mencukupi untuk mengalihkan seluruh kubah secara bersamaan dengan sedikit.
Pada 12 September 1940, bom yang ditangguhkan masa yang telah melanda gereja telah berjaya dibuang dan dihapuskan oleh detasmen Jurutera Diraja di bawah arahan Leftenan Sementara Robert Davies. Sekiranya bom ini meletup, ia akan menghancurkan katedral sepenuhnya; Ia meninggalkan kawah 100-kaki (30 m) apabila kemudiannya diletupkan di lokasi yang selamat. Hasil daripada tindakan ini, Davies dan Sapper George Cameron Wylie masing-masing dianugerahkan George Cross. Davies 'George Cross dan pingat lain dipamerkan di Muzium Perang Imperial, London.
Salah satu imej London terkenal semasa perang adalah gambar St Paul yang diambil pada 29 Disember 1940 semasa "Great Second Fire of London" oleh jurugambar Herbert Mason, dari bumbung bangunan Di Tudor Street yang menunjukkan katedral diselubungi asap. Lisa Jardine dari Queen Mary, University of London, telah menulis:
Menghirup asap, di tengah-tengah kekacauan dan kemusnahan perang, kubah pucat berdiri bangga dan mulia. Pada puncak serangan udara itu, Sir Winston Churchill menelefon Guildhall untuk menegaskan bahawa semua sumber pemadam kebakaran akan diarahkan ke St Paul. Katedral itu mesti diselamatkan, katanya, kerosakan pada kain itu akan meremukkan semangat negara.

Pemulihan

Kerja-kerja pengubahsuaian tembaga, plumbum dan batu tulis yang luas telah dijalankan di Kubah pada tahun 1996 oleh John B. Chambers. Projek pemulihan 15 tahun-salah satu yang terbesar pernah dilakukan di UK-telah siap pada 15 Jun 2011.

Occupy London

Pada bulan Oktober 2011 sebuah kampungan anti-kapitalisme Occupy London ditubuhkan di hadapan gereja, selepas gagal mendapatkan akses ke Bursa Saham London di Paternoster Square yang berdekatan. Kewangan gereja dipengaruhi oleh penutupan berikutnya. Ia mendakwa bahawa katedral itu kehilangan pendapatan sebanyak £ 20,000 sehari. Canon Canselor Giles Fraser meletak jawatan, menegaskan pandangannya bahawa untuk mengusir aktivis anti-kapitalis akan membentuk "kekerasan atas nama Gereja". Dekan St Paul, Hak Revd Graeme Knowles, kemudian meletak jawatan juga. Perkampungan itu diusir pada akhir Februari 2012, melalui perintah mahkamah dan tanpa keganasan, akibat tindakan undang-undang oleh City Corporation.

Ministry and functions

St Paul's Cathedral is a busy church with four or five services every day, including Matins, Eucharist and Evening Prayer or Evensong. In addition, the cathedral has many special services associated with the City of London, its corporation, guilds and institutions. The cathedral, as the largest church in London, also has a role in many state functions such as the service celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. The cathedral is generally open daily to tourists and has a regular programme  of organ recitals and other performances.4 The Bishop of London is Richard Chartres who was installed in January 1996.

Registrar

The Registrar, Emma Davies (September 2015), is the cathedral's principal administrator and lay officer, and assists the cathedral chapter in its work, overseeing more than 150 full-time staff, together with volunteers.  She is a solicitor and was a senior civil servant prior to her appointment.

Organ

The organ was commissioned from Bernard Smith in 1694. Lang 1956, halaman 171  The current instrument is the third-largest  in Great Britain in terms of number of pipes (7,189), with 5 manuals, 189 ranks of pipes and 138 stops, enclosed in an impressive case designed in Wren's workshop and decorated by Grinling Gibbons.
Details of the organ from the National Pipe Organ Register

Choir

St Paul's Cathedral has a choir, largely of men and boys, which sings regularly at services. The earliest records of the choir date from 1127. The present choir consist of up to 30 boy choristers, eight probationers and the Vicars Choral, 12 professional singers, historically men. In February 2017 the cathedral announced the appointment of the first female Vicar Choral, Carris Jones (a mezzo-soprano), to take up the role in September 2017.
During school terms the choir sings at Evensong five times per week, the service on Mondays being sung by a visiting choir (or occasionally said) and that on Thursdays being sung by the Vicars Choral without the boys. On Sundays the choir also sings at Matins and Eucharist.
Many distinguished musicians have been organists, choir masters and choristers at St Paul's Cathedral, including the composers John Redford, Thomas Morley, John Blow, Jeremiah Clarke and John Stainer, while well known performers have included Alfred Deller, John Shirley-Quirk and Anthony Way as well as the conductors  Charles Groves and Paul Hillier and the poet Walter de la Mare.

Development of the design

In designing St Paul's, Christopher Wren had to meet many challenges. He had to create a fitting cathedral to replace Old St Paul's, as a place of worship and as a landmark within the City of London. He had to satisfy the requirements of the church and the tastes of a royal patron, as well as respecting the essentially mediaeval tradition of English church building which developed to accommodate the liturgy. Wren was familiar with contemporary Renaissance and Baroque trends in Italian architecture and had visited France, where he studied the work of François Mansart.
Wren's design developed through five general stages. The first survives only as a single drawing and part of a model. The scheme (usually called the First Model Design) appears to have consisted of a circular domed vestibule (possibly based on the Pantheon in Rome) and a rectangular church of basilica form. The plan may have been influenced by the Temple Church. It was rejected because it was not thought "stately enough" Wren's second design was a Greek cross, which was thought by the clerics not to fulfil the requirements of Anglican liturgy.
Wren's third design is embodied in the "Great Model" of 1673. The model, made of oak and plaster, cost over £500 (approximately £32,000 today) and is over 13 kaki (4 m) tall and 21 kaki (6 m) long. This design retained the form of the Greek Cross design but extended it with a nave. His critics, members of a committee commissioned to rebuild the church, and clergy, decried the design as too dissimilar to other English churches to suggest any continuity within the Church of England. Another problem was that the entire design would have to be completed all at once because of the eight central piers that supported the dome, instead of being completed in stages and opened for use before construction finished, as was customary. The Great Model was Wren's favourite design; he thought it a reflection of Renaissance beauty. After the Great Model, Wren resolved not to make further models and not publicly to expose his drawings, which he found to do nothing but "lose time, and subject [his] business many times, to incompetent judges". The Great Model survives and is housed within the Cathedral itself.
Wren's fourth design is known as the Warrant design because it received a Royal warrant for the rebuilding. In this design Wren sought to reconcile Gothic, the predominant style of English churches, to a "better manner of architecture." It has the longitudinal Latin Cross plan of a mediaeval cathedral. It is of one and a half storeys and has classical porticos at the west and transept ends, influenced by Inigo Jones’s addition to Old St Paul's. It is roofed at the crossing by a wide shallow dome supporting a drum with a second cupola from which rises a spire of seven diminishing stages. Vaughan Hart has suggested that influence may have been drawn from the oriental pagoda in the design of the spire. Not used at St Paul's, the concept was applied in the spire of St Bride's, Fleet Street. This plan was rotated slightly on its site so that it aligned not with true east, but with sunrise on Easter of the year construction began. This small change in configuration was informed by Wren's knowledge of astronomy.

Final design

The final design as built differs substantially from the official Warrant design.
 Wren received permission from the king to make "ornamental changes" to the submitted design, and Wren took great advantage of this. Many of these changes were made over the course of the thirty years as the church was constructed, and the most significant was to the dome: "He raised another structure over the first cupola, a cone of brick, so as to support a stone lantern of an elegant figure... And he covered and hid out of sight the brick cone with another cupola of timber and lead; and between this and the cone are easy stairs that ascend to the lantern" (Christopher Wren, son of Sir Christopher Wren). The final design was strongly rooted in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The saucer domes over the nave were inspired by François Mansart's Church of the Val-de-Grâce, which Wren had seen during a trip to Paris in 1665.
The date of the laying of the first stone of the cathedral is disputed. One contemporary account says it was on 21 June 1675, another on 25 June and a third on 28 June. There is, however, general agreement that it was laid in June 1675. Edward Strong later claimed it was laid by his elder brother, Thomas Strong, one of the two master stonemasons appointed by Wren at the beginning of the work.

Structural engineering

Wren's challenge was to construct a large cathedral on the relatively weak clay soil of London. St Paul's is unusual among cathedrals in that there is a crypt, the largest in Europe, under the entire building rather than just under the eastern end.  The crypt serves a structural purpose. Although it is extensive, half the space of the crypt is taken up by massive piers which spread the weight of the much slimmer piers of the church above. While the towers and domes of most cathedrals are supported on four piers, Wren designed the dome of St Paul's to be supported on eight, achieving a broader distribution of weight at the level of the foundations.  The foundations settled as the building progressed, and Wren made structural changes in response.
One of the design problems that confronted Wren was to create a landmark dome, tall enough to visually replace the lost tower of St Paul's, while at the same time appearing visually satisfying when viewed from inside the building. Wren planned a double-shelled dome, as at St Peter's Basilica.  His solution to the visual problem was to separate the heights of the inner and outer dome to a much greater extent than had been done by Michelangelo at St Peter's, drafting both as catenary curves, rather than as hemispheres. Between the inner and outer domes, Wren inserted a brick cone which supports both the timbers of the outer, lead covered dome and the weight of the ornate stone lantern that rises above it. Both the cone and the inner dome are 18 inches thick and are supported by wrought iron chains at intervals in the brick cone and around the cornice of the peristyle of the inner dome to prevent spreading and cracking.
The Warrant Design showed external buttresses on the ground floor level.These were not a classical feature and were one of the first elements Wren changed. Instead he made the walls of the cathedral particularly thick to avoid the need for external buttresses altogether. The clerestorey and vault are reinforced with flying buttresses, which were added at a relatively late stage in the design to give extra strength. These are concealed behind the screen wall of the upper storey which was added to keep the building's classical style intact, to add sufficient visual mass to balance the appearance of the dome and which, by its weight, counters the thrust of the buttresses on the lower walls.

Designers, builders and craftsmen

During the extensive period of design and rationalisation Wren employed from 1684 Nicholas Hawksmoor as his principal assistant. Between 1696 and 1711 William Dickinson was measuring clerk. Joshua Marshall (until his early death in 1678) and Thomas and his brother Edward Strong were master masons, the latter two working on the construction for its entirety. John Langland was the master carpenter for over thirty years. Grinling Gibbons was the chief sculptor, working in both stone on the building itself, including the pediment of the north portal, and wood on the internal fittings.  The sculptor Caius Gabriel Cibber created the pediment of the south transept while Francis Bird was responsible for the relief in the west pediment depicting the Conversion of St Paul, as well as the seven large statues on the west front. The floor was paved by William Dickinson in black and white marble in 1709–10  Jean Tijou was responsible for the decorative wrought ironwork of gates and balustrades. The ball and cross on the dome were provided by an armorer, Andrew Niblett.

Description

St Paul's Cathedral is built in a restrained Baroque style which represents Wren's rationalisation of the traditions of English medieval cathedrals with the inspiration of Palladio, the classical style of Inigo Jones, the baroque style of 17th century Rome, and the buildings by Mansart and others that he had seen in France.  It is particularly in its plan that St Paul's reveals medieval influences.  Like the great medieval cathedrals of York and Winchester, St Paul's is comparatively long for its width, and has strongly projecting transepts. It has much emphasis on its facade, which has been designed to define rather than conceal the form of the building behind it. In plan, the towers jut beyond the width of the aisles as they do at Wells Cathedral. Wren's uncle Matthew Wren was the Bishop of Ely, and through having worked for his uncle Wren was familiar with the unique octagonal lantern tower over the crossing of the Cathedral in Ely which spans the aisles as well as the central nave, unlike the central towers and domes of most churches. Wren adapted this characteristic in designing the dome of St Paul's.  In section St Paul's also maintains a medieval form, having the aisles much lower than the nave, and a defined clerestory.

Exterior

The most notable exterior feature is the dome, which rises 365 kaki (111 m) to the cross at its summit, and dominates views of the City. The height of 365 feet is explained by Wren's interest in astronomy. Until the late 20th century St Paul's was the tallest building on the City skyline, designed  to be seen surrounded by the delicate spires of Wren's other city churches. The dome is described by Sir Banister Fletcher as "probably the finest in Europe", by Helen Gardner as "majestic", and by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as "one of the most perfect in the world". Sir John Summerson said that Englishmen and "even some foreigners" consider it to be without equal.

Dome

Wren drew inspiration from Michelangelo's dome of St Peter's Basilica, and that of Mansart's Church of the Val-de-Grâce, which he had visited. Unlike those of St Peter's and Val-de-Grâce, the dome of St Paul's rises in two clearly defined storeys of masonry, which, together with a lower unadorned footing, equal a height of about 95 feet. From the time of the Greek Cross Design it is clear that Wren favoured a continuous colonnade (peristyle) around the drum of the dome, rather than the arrangement of alternating windows and projecting columns that Michelangelo had used and which had also been employed by Mansart. Summerson suggests that he was influence by Bramante's "Tempietto" in the courtyard of San Pietro in Montorio. In the finished structure, Wren creates a diversity and appearance of strength by placing niches between the columns in every fourth opening.  The peristyle serves to buttress both the inner dome and the brick cone which rises internally to support the lantern.
Above the peristyle rises the second stage surrounded by a balustraded balcony called the "Stone Gallery". This attic stage is ornamented with alternating pilasters and rectangular windows which are set just below the cornice, creating a sense of lightness. Above this attic rises the dome, covered with lead, and ribbed in accordance with the spacing of the pilasters. It is pierced by eight light wells just below the lantern, but these are barely visible. They allow light to penetrate through openings in the brick cone, which illuminates the interior apex of this shell, partly visible from within the cathedral through the ocular opening of the lower dome.
The lantern, like the visible masonry of the dome, rises in stages. The most unusual characteristic of this structure is that it is of square plan, rather than circular or octagonal. The tallest stage takes the form of a tempietto with four columned porticos facing the cardinal points. Its lowest level is surrounded by the "Golden Gallery" and its upper level supports a small dome from which rises a cross on a golden ball.  The total weight of the lantern is about 850 tons.

West front

For the Renaissance architect designing the west front of a large church or cathedral, the universal problem was how to use a facade to unite the high central nave with the lower aisles in a visually harmonious whole. Since Alberti's additions to Santa Maria Novella in Florence, this was usually achieved by the simple expedient of linking the sides to the centre with large brackets. This is the solution that Wren saw employed by Mansart at Val-de-Grâce. Another feature employed by Mansart was a boldly projecting Classical portico with paired columns. Wren faced the additional challenge of incorporating towers into the design, as had been planned at St Peter's Basilica. At St Peter's, Carlo Maderno had solved this problem by constructing a narthex and stretching a huge screen facade across it, differentiated at the centre by a pediment. The towers at St Peter's were not built above the parapet.
Wren's solution was to employ a Classical portico, as at Val-de-Grâce, but rising through two storeys, and supported on paired columns. The remarkable feature here is that the lower storey of this portico extends to the full width of the aisles, while the upper section defines the nave that lies behind it. The gaps between the upper stage of the portico and the towers on either side are bridged by a narrow section of wall with an arch-topped window.
The towers stand outside the width of the aisles, but screen two chapels located immediately behind them. The lower parts of the towers continue the theme of the outer walls, but are differentiated from them in order to create an appearance of strength. The windows of the lower storey are smaller than those of the side walls and are deeply recessed, a visual indication of the thickness of the wall. The paired pilasters at each corner project boldly.
Above the main cornice, which unites the towers with the portico and the outer walls, the details are boldly scaled, in order to read well from the street below and from a distance. The towers rise above the cornice from a square block plinth which is plain apart from large oculi, that on the south being filled by the clock, while that on the north is void. The towers are composed of two complementary elements, a central cylinder rising through the tiers in a series of stacked drums, and paired Corinthian columns at the corners, with buttresses above them, which serve to unify the drum shape with the square plinth on which it stands. The entablature above the columns breaks forward over them to express both elements, tying them together in a single horizontal band. The cap, like a bell-shaped miniature dome, supports a gilded finial, a pineapple supported on four scrolling angled brackets, the topmost expression of the consistent theme.
The transepts each have a semi-circular entrance portico. Wren was inspired in the design by studying engravings of Pietro da Cortona's Baroque facade of Santa Maria della Pace in Rome. These projecting arcs echo the shape of the apse at the eastern end of the building.

Walls

The building is of two storeys of ashlar masonry, above a basement, and surrounded by a balustrade above the upper cornice. The balustrade was added, against Wren's wishes, in 1718. The internal bays are marked externally by paired pilasters with Corinthian capitals at the lower level and Composite at the upper level. Where the building behind is of only one storey (at the aisles of both nave and choir) the upper storey of the exterior wall is sham. It serves a dual purpose of supporting the buttresses of the vault, and providing a satisfying appearance when viewed rising above buildings of the height of the 17th century city. This appearance may still be seen from across the River Thames.
Between the pilasters on both levels are windows. Those of the lower storey have semi-circular heads and are surrounded by continuous mouldings of a Roman style, rising to decorative keystones. Beneath each window is a floral swag by Grinling Gibbons, constituting the finest stone carving on the building and some of the greatest architectural sculpture in England. A frieze with similar swags runs in a band below the cornice, tying the arches of the windows and the capitals. The upper windows are of a restrained Classical form, with pediments set on columns, but are blind and contain niches. Beneath these niches, and in the basement level, are small windows with segmental tops, the glazing of which catches the light and visually links them to the large windows of the aisles. The height from ground level to the top of the parapet is approximately 110 feet.

Interior

Internally, St Paul's has a nave and choir in each of its three bays. The entrance from the west portico is through a square domed narthex, flanked by chapels: the Chapel of St Dunstan to the north and the Chapel of the Order of St Michael and St George to the south. The nave is 91 kaki (28 m) in height and is separated from the aisles by an arcade of piers with attached Corinthian pilasters rising to an entablature. The bays, and therefore the vault compartments, are rectangular, but Wren roofed these spaces with saucer-shaped domes and surrounded the clerestorey windows with lunettes. The vaults of the choir are decorated with mosaics by Sir William Blake Richmond.  The dome and the apse of the choir are all approached through wide arches with coffered vaults which contrast with the smooth surface of the domes and punctuate the division between the main spaces. The transepts extend to the north and south of the dome and are called (in this instance) the North Choir and the South Choir.
The choir holds the stalls for the clergy, cathedral officers and the choir, and the organ. These wooden fittings, including the pulpit and Bishop's throne, were designed in Wren's office and built by joiners. The carvings are the work of Grinling Gibbons who Summerson describes as having "astonishing facility", suggesting that Gibbons aim was to reproduce popular Dutch flower painting in wood. Jean Tijou, a French metalworker, provided various wrought iron and gilt grills, gates and balustrades of elaborate design, of which many pieces have now been combined into the gates near the sanctuary.
The cathedral is some 574 kaki (175 m) in length (including the portico of the Great West Door), of which 223 kaki (68 m) is the nave and 167 kaki (51 m) is the choir.
The width of the nave is 121 kaki (37 m) and across the transepts is 246 kaki (75 m). The cathedral is slightly shorter but somewhat wider than Old St Paul's.

Dome

The main internal space of the cathedral is that under the central dome which extends the full width of the nave and aisles. The dome is supported on pendentives rising between eight arches spanning the nave, choir, transepts, and aisles. The eight piers that carry them are not evenly spaced. Wren has maintained an appearance of eight equal spans by inserting segmental arches to carry galleries across the ends of the aisles, and has extended the mouldings of the upper arch to appear equal to the wider arches.
Above the keystones of the arches, at 99 kaki (30 m) above the floor and 112 kaki (34 m) wide, runs a cornice which supports the Whispering Gallery so called because of its acoustic properties: a whisper or low murmur against its wall at any point is audible to a listener with an ear held to the wall at any other point around the gallery. It is reached by 259 steps from ground level.
The dome is raised on a tall drum surrounded by pilasters and pierced with windows in groups of three, separated by eight gilded niches containing statues, and repeating the pattern of the peristyle on the exterior. the dome rises above a gilded cornice at 173 kaki (53 m) to a height of 214 kaki (65 m). Its painted decoration by Sir James Thornhill shows eight scenes from the life of St Paul set in illusionistic architecture which continues the forms of the eight niches of the drum. At the apex of the dome is an oculus inspired by that of the Pantheon in Rome. Through this hole can be seen the decorated inner surface of the cone which supports the lantern. This upper space is lit by the light wells in the outer dome and  openings in the brick cone. Engravings of Thornhill's paintings were published in 1720.

Apse

The eastern apse extends the width of the choir and is the full height of the main arches across choir and nave. It is decorated with mosaics, in keeping with the choir vaults. The original reredos and high altar were destroyed by bombing in 1940. The present high altar and baldacchino  are the work of W. Godfrey Allen and Stephen Dykes Bower. The apse was dedicated in 1958 as the American Memorial Chapel. It was paid for entirely by donations from British people. The Roll of Honour contains the names of more than 28,000 Americans who gave their lives while on their way to, or stationed in, the United Kingdom during the Second World War. It is in front of the chapel's altar. The three windows of the apse date from 1960 and depict themes of service and sacrifice, while the insignia around the edges represent the American states and the US armed forces. The limewood panelling incorporates a rocket—a tribute to America's achievements in space.

Artworks, tombs and memorials

St Paul's at the time of its completion, was adorned by sculpture in stone and wood, most notably that of Grinling Gibbons, by the paintings in the dome by Thornhill, and by Jean Tijou's elaborate metalwork. It has been further enhanced by Sir William Richmond's mosaics and the fittings by Dykes Bower and Godfrey Allen.  Other artworks in the cathedral include, in the south aisle, William Holman Hunt's copy of his painting The Light of the World, the original of which hangs in Keble College, Oxford. In the north choir aisle is a limestone sculpture of the Madonna and Child by Henry Moore, carved in 1943. The crypt contains over 200 memorials and numerous burials. Christopher Wren was the first person to be interred, in 1723. On the wall above his tomb in the crypt is written in Latin: Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice ("Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you").
The largest monument in the cathedral is that to the Duke of Wellington by Alfred Stevens. It stands on the north side of the nave and has on top a statue of Wellington astride his horse "Copenhagen". Although the equestrian figure was planned at the outset, objections to the notion of having a horse in the church prevented its installation until 1912. The horse and rider are by John Tweed. The Duke is buried in the crypt.
The tomb of Horatio, Lord Nelson is located in the crypt, next to that of Wellington. The marble sarcophagus which holds his remains was made for Cardinal Wolsey but not used as the cardinal had fallen from favour. At the eastern end of the crypt is the Chapel of the Order of the British Empire, instigated in 1917, and designed by Lord Mottistone. There are many other memorials commemorating the British military, including several lists of servicemen who died in action, the most recent being the Gulf War.
Also remembered are Florence Nightingale, J. M. W. Turner, Arthur Sullivan, Hubert Parry, Samuel Johnson, Lawrence of Arabia, William Blake and Sir Alexander Fleming as well as clergy and residents of the local parish. There are lists of the Bishops and cathedral Deans for the last thousand years. One of the most remarkable sculptures is that of the Dean and poet, John Donne. Before his death, Donne posed for his own memorial statue and was depicted by Nicholas Stone as wrapped in a burial shroud, and standing on a funeral urn. The sculpture, carved around 1630, is the only one to have survived the conflagration of 1666 intact.  The treasury is also in the crypt but the cathedral has very few treasures as many have been lost, and on 22 December 1810 a major robbery took almost all of the remaining precious artefacts.
The funerals of many notable figures have occurred at the cathedral, including those of Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Winston Churchill, George Mallory and Margaret Thatcher.

Interpretation Project

The Interpretation Project is a long term project concerned with bringing St Paul’s to life for all its visitors. In 2010, the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's opened St Paul's Oculus, a 270° film experience that brings 1400 years of history to life. Located in the former Treasury in the crypt, the film takes visitors on a journey through the history and daily life of St Paul's Cathedral. Oculus was funded by American Express Company in partnership with the World Monuments Fund, J. P . Morgan, the Garfield Weston Trust for St Paul’s Cathedral, the City of London Endowment Trust and AIG.
In 2010, new touchscreen multimedia guides were also launched. These guides are included in the price of admission. Visitors can discover the cathedral’s history, architecture and daily life of a busy working church with these new multimedia guides. They are available in 12 different languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean and British Sign Language (BSL). The guides have fly-through videos of the dome galleries and zoomable close-ups of the ceiling mosaics, painting and photography. Interviews and commentary from experts include the Dean of St Paul’s, conservation team and the Director of Music. Archive film footage includes major services and events from the cathedral's history.

Charges for sightseers

St Paul's charges for the admission of those people who are sightseers, rather than worshippers; the charge is £18 (£16 when purchased online). Outside service times, people seeking a quiet place to pray or worship are admitted to St Dunstan's Chapel free of charge. On Sundays people are admitted only for services and concerts and there is no sightseeing. The charge to sightseers is made because St Paul's receives little regular or significant funding from the Crown, the Church of England or the state and relies on the income generated by tourism to allow the building to continue to function as a centre for Christian worship, as well as to cover general maintenance and repair work.

St Paul's Cathedral Arts Project

The St Paul’s Cathedral Arts Project explores art and faith. Projects have included installations by Gerry Judah, Antony Gormley, Rebecca Horn, Yoko Ono and Martin Firrell.
In 2014, St Paul's commissioned Gerry Judah to create an artwork in the nave to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War. Two spectacular sculptures consisting of three-dimensional white cruciforms reflect the meticulously maintained war graves of northern France and further afield. Each sculpture is also embellished with miniaturised destroyed residential blocks depicting war zones in the Middle East—Syria, Baghdad, Afghanistan—thus connecting 100 years of warfare.
Bill Viola has created two altarpieces for permanent display in St Paul's Cathedral. The project commenced production in mid-2009. Following the extensive programme of cleaning and repair of the interior of St Paul's, completed in 2005, He was commissioned to create two altarpieces on the themes of Mary and Martyrs. These two multi-screen video installations are permanently located at the end of the Quire aisles, flanking the High Altar of the cathedral and the American Memorial Chapel. Each work employs an arrangement of multiple plasma screen panels configured in a manner similar to historic altarpieces.
In summer 2010, St Paul's chose two new works by the British artist Mark Alexander to be hung either side of the nave. Both entitled Red Mannheim, Alexander's large red silkscreens are inspired by the Mannheim Cathedral altarpiece (1739–41), which was damaged by bombing in the Second World War. The original sculpture depicts Christ on the cross, surrounded by a familiar retinue of mourners. Rendered in splendid giltwood, with Christ's wracked body sculpted in relief, and the flourishes of flora and incandescent rays from heaven, this masterpiece of the German Rococo is an object of ravishing beauty and intense piety.
In March 2010, Flare II, a sculpture by Antony Gormley, was installed in the Geometric Staircase.
In 2007, the Dean and Chapter commissioned public artist Martin Firrell to create a major public artwork to mark the 300th anniversary of the topping-out of Wren's building. The Question Mark Inside consisted of digital text projections to the cathedral dome, West Front and inside onto the Whispering Gallery. The text was based on blog contributions by the general public as well as interviews conducted by the artist and on the artist's own views. The project presented a stream of possible answers to the question: 'What makes life meaningful and purposeful, and what does St Paul's mean in that contemporary context?' The Question Mark Inside opened on 8 November 2008 and ran for eight nights.

Gambaran St Paul

Katedral St Paul telah digambarkan banyak kali dalam lukisan, cetakan dan lukisan. Antara artis terkenal yang telah dicatinya adalah Canaletto, Turner, Daubigny, Pissarro, Signac, Derain, Lloyd Rees,