After the funeral, Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin will be moved to the crypt in St George’s Chapel, where 25 members of the British Royal Family are resting.
Queen Elizabeth II, daughter of King George VI, died on September 8, aged 96. After a 4.5-day funeral period at Westminster Hall, the Queen’s coffin will be moved to Westminster Abbey for a funeral on September 19.
The Queen’s coffin was then carried to St George’s Chapel inside the grounds of Windsor Castle. This chapel has been the site of many royal ceremonies, weddings and funerals since the 15th century, replacing Westminster Abbey.
After final ceremonies, the Queen’s coffin was moved to the Royal Catacombs below what is now the Albert Memorial Chapel. At the funeral, the only thing that will be covered on the Queen’s coffin is red earth in a silver bowl, sprinkled by her son King Charles III. Queen Elizabeth II was also the one who sprinkled red earth on the coffin of her father, King George VI.
Guards pass through St George’s Chapel 2020. Photo: AP.
The Royal Catacombs were built between 1804 and 1810 by order of King George III. The Albert Memorial Chapel, completed in 1863, is the resting place of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
Follow Mirror, the crypt is a stone-paved room measuring 7 x 25 m. The stone walls are designed with additional racks to place the coffin. There is also some information that the tomb has a size of 8.5 x 21.3 m, 32 coffins can be placed along both sides of the wall and 12 coffins in the middle.
The catacombs were originally lit by kerosene lamps, then switched to electric lamps from the 20th century. The crypt has a stone platform at the entrance where the coffins of recently deceased royals are located.
At the funeral, the royal coffin will be lowered from St George’s Chapel, through an opening in the floor, into the 4.8 m deep corridor below by an electric lift system. The coffin is then moved through a 15-meter-long underground corridor before being brought into the crypt.
Location of the Royal Catacombs inside St George’s Chapel. Graphics: Sun.
Inside the Royal Catacombs are 25 coffins, including the bodies of King George III, IV and V, King William IV and Queen Charlotte. The first royal member to be interred here was Princess Amelia, the youngest daughter of King George III.
The last person to be interred in the Royal Catacombs was Princess Alice, mother of Prince Philip, in 1969, but her grave was later moved to Jerusalem.
In recent decades, the catacombs have played a major role as a temporary resting place for members of the royal family before a suitable burial place. King George V’s coffin remained in the crypt for several decades, before being moved above St George’s Chapel to be interred next to his wife, Mary of Teck.
King George VI’s coffin lay waiting for 17 years in the crypt before being moved to the King George VI Memorial Chapel in 1969. The coffins of his wife, Queen Elizabeth, and the ashes of their daughter Princess Margaret, both died in 2002. , has been moved here.
The Royal Catacombs are not Queen Elizabeth II’s permanent resting place. Her coffin will be temporarily placed here pending the preparations for burial at the King George VI Memorial Chapel.
Painting inside the Royal Catacombs in 1873. Photo: Anglophile.
The King George VI Memorial Chapel will be the final resting place of Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip. Prince Philip died in April 2021 and his coffin is also being placed temporarily in the Royal Catacombs.
The British royal family had previously planned to place the two bodies next to each other, the coffin of the person who died first will be brought down to wait at the crypt.
Like Tam (Follow National Post, Metro, Sun)
