During my visit to the charming city of Bath, I visited the famous Bath Abbey. Also known as the “Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul”, Bath Abbey sits at the center of the city and draws many visitors from all around the world with its gorgeous architecture and very-well preserved interior.

Originally founded in early 7th century, the abbey went through many restoration and reorganization processes throughout the history. It took the current form by the works of George Gilbert Scott, a famous English architect from the Victorian era. This abbey is one of the largest examples of Perpendicular Gothic architecture (another famous example: Westminster Abbey). It takes this name because of its emphasis on vertical lines.

When I entered inside the abbey, I was fascinated by how clean and new it looks.  Considering that this is an ancient monument, I really admire the effort put into preservation and the restoration of this abbey. The gorgeous fan vault is probably one of the best features of this abbey. Different from the rib vaults, fan vaults are way more detailed and a conoid shape is farmed which gives the name “fan”.

The abbey is also built on Bath stone which is an oolitic limestone, which has a warm, honey color. One great feature of this stone is that it’s a freestone, which means it can be sawn in any direction compared to other stones used for the construction of the abbeys. This maybe explains the amount of effort put into detailing of the interior.

The abbey is still an active place of worship, it’s admission free but donations are more than welcome.

http://www.bathabbey.org