Westminster Abbey began as a Benedictine monastery around 959. Edward the Confessor's church was consecrated on December 28, 1065, and in 1245 Henry III began the present building under the master mason Henry of Reyns. Its style is chiefly 13th-century French and English Gothic, largely based on French models such as Reims Cathedral.
The abbey's nave is the highest of any Gothic church in England. The octagonal chapter house, built between 1250 and 1259, is nearly 60 feet (18 m) across. The Henry VII Chapel has a ceiling that resembles a fan vault. Nicholas Hawksmoor and John James built the western towers in the 1740s.
Forty English and British monarchs have been crowned here since 1066, and about 18 are buried in the abbey. UNESCO named it a World Heritage Site in 1987. Admission fees have been charged since 1997.
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