Visitors to London’s Westminster Abbey can visit shortly after the coronation of King Charles III. first entered the area of ​​​​the venerable church, in which the monarch will sit at the ceremony, but only in stockings, as announced by the abbey. To protect the delicate mosaic floor, shoes must be removed during the special “Crown and Church” tour, offered May 15-July 29.

“It will be the first time in living memory that the abbey has invited visitors to step onto the pavement of the cosmates where the coronation chair will be placed for the coronation on May 6,” an abbey spokesman said in a statement. The Cosmates were a group of Italian artisans who, during the Middle Ages, used a technique called inlay to decorate floors and other areas of churches with marble mosaics.

The Cosmatian cover in Westminster Abbey dates from the 13th century and is considered one of the greatest treasures of medieval art in Britain. It was covered by a carpet for about 150 years, and also at the coronation of Carlos’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1953. At the coronation of Carlos III. but it must be visible. It represents a geocentric universe, that is, with the earth in the center, and it even contains a prediction of the date of the end of the world. However, with an assumed world durability of 19,683 years, that is still a long way off.

© dpa-infocom, dpa:230324-99-68372/2