Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
You'll see tourists walking around the base of the dome in the Whispering Gallery.
The dome is constructed with such acoustic precision that secrets whispered from one side
of it are heard on the opposite side, 170 feet away.
Christopher Wren (1632-1723) was the right man at the right time. Though the
31-year-old astronomy professor had never built a major building in his life when he got
the commission for St. Paul's, his reputation for brilliance and his unique ability to work
with others carried him through. The church has the clean lines and geometric simplicity
of the age of Newton, when reason was holy and God set the planets spinning in perfect
geometrical motion.
For more than 40 years, Wren worked on this site, overseeing every detail of St. Paul's
and the 65,000-ton dome. It's estimated that the dome cost $850 million (in today's dol-
lars). At age 75, Wren got to look up and see his son place the cross on top of the dome,
completing the masterpiece.
On the floor directly beneath the dome is a brass grate—part of a 19th-century attempt
to heat the church. Encircling it is Christopher Wren's name and epitaph, written in Latin:
