St Paul’s Cathedral 🏛⛪️🎶

St Paul’s Cathedral is the anglican mother church of the Bishop of London but it is not only a main place of religious cult in London and a very recognizable landmark for the City of London. It is also a place where excellent sacred music can be enjoyed with the glorious acoustics of the second largest church in the United Kingdom.

Designed in the English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren in the 17th century, the current church replaced the Old St Paul’s Cathedral that was destroyed during the Great Fire of London and dated back to pre-Norman times. Its iconic dome is dominating the London skyline and was for many years, until 1967, the tallest building in London.

The cathedral is the largest chuch in London and the one with the third largest organ in Great Britain, with an impressive 7,189 pipes, which makes a real delight to listen to, along with one of the best resident choirs in the UK. The original organ of the cathedral was almost completely substitutued with a new instrumenti in 1870s and this has been renovated several times since to keep it as a fully functioning masterpiece.

The cathedral has a regular programme of sacred music that includes performances of the resident or visiting choirs and the resident and visiting musicians. The most popular programme is the Sunday Organ Recitals, on most Sundays at 4.30pm and free, featuring the world’s finest organists. A great opportunity to enjoy music at the church and visit it for free. Yesterday I went there for my first live concert after the lockdown and it generated an intense emotion to listen again to a magnificient programme in an environment made even more suggestive by the sparse seats for the audience.