Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723)
This
versatile man was an astronomer, an inventor and, above all, the
greatest English architect. 
Christopher Wren was born in 1632 in Windsor. He was educated at Westminster school and then went up to Oxford. In 1651 Chr.Wren graduated from the Oxford university, where later on he lectured on astronomy.
I. Newton considered him one of the best mathematicians of the day.
In 1657 he was made professor of Astronomy in London. But two years later his career took a different turn with his appointment to the commission for the restoration of St. Paul’s Cathedral.
His first building, the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, (1663) is the work of brilliant amateur through the trussed roof of the theatre already displays his structural ingenuity.
But the plan of London reconstruction was his main town-planning design, the meaning of which is difficult to estimate.
Chr.Wren was appointed Chief Architect to the Crown when he was thirty seven years old.
For next thirty-eight years Chr.Wren was kept busy rebuilding fifty-one churches burnt down in the Great Fire of 1666.
But apart from the churches Chr.Wren influenced the design of houses, both in town and country.
He used traditional English building materials, brick and ordinary roofing tiles, inventing new ways of using them and also popularised the use of Portland stone in London.
But
the construction of St. Paul’s Cathedral, his masterpiece, is an
engineering feat, compared with the greatest that the Italian
architects had achieved. St. Paul’s was begun in 1675 and Chr.Wren
lived to see it finished in 1710. It took him thirty-five years to
build the Cathedral. Nothing like it had ever been seen in England.
St. Paul’s was a triumph of his empirical genius and intellectual
self-reliance. And its dome is one of the most majestic in the world.
Chr.Wren died aged ninety-one and was buried in the building which his genius had created.
Vocabulary:
versatile (adj.) – многосторонний, разносторонний
amateur (n) – любитель, дилетант
ingenuity (n) – мастерство, изобретательность
estimate (v) – оценивать
appoint (v) – назначать, определять
feat (n) – подвиг
genius (n) – одаренность, гениальность
self-reliance (n) – уверенность в себе
empirical (adj) – эмпирический, основанный на опыте
intellectual (adj) – разумный, мыслящий, интеллектуальный
dome (n) – купол, свод
commission (n) – поручение, заказ
consider (v) – считать, полагать
Questions to the text:
What did Chr.Wren do?
When was he born?
Where was he educated?
When did Chr.Wren graduate from the Oxford university?
Where did he lecture on astronomy?
Did I. Newton consider him to be one of the best mathematicians of the day?
When was Chr.Wren made professor of astronomy?
Why did his career take a different turn?
What was his first building?
What was his main town planning design?
When was Chr.Wren appointed Chief Architect to the Crown?
Where was Chr.Wren kept busy for thirty-eight years?
Did Chr.Wren influence the design of houses, both in town and country?
Which materials did he use and popularize?
What is his masterpiece?
When was the construction of St. Paul’s Cathedral begun?
When was it finished?
Where was Chr.Wren buried?