The 700-year-old throne of Edward I is being restored for the coronation of Charles III in Britain

The coronation of Charles III will take place in Great Britain in May 2023. The ceremony is planned for May 6 in Westminster Abbey.

The coronation ceremony of Charles III will be shorter than that of Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953. There will also be fewer guests - 2,000 instead of 8,000. Along with Charles, Queen Consort Camilla will also be crowned. By the way, it is said that her crown will not have a Koh-i-Noor diamond, which is believed to attract great trouble.

Read also: Queen Camilla strikes at the reception in Buckingham Palace

The ceremony will feature 12 new pieces specially written for the occasion. Among them is an anthem written by the famous composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Meanwhile, restorers have begun preparing the 700-year-old St. Edward's throne, on which Charles III will sit during the coronation ceremony, according to the BBC. It is noted that the throne has become extremely fragile over several hundred years, so it was decided to strengthen it, clean it, and restore the flaking gilding.

This throne has been used for centuries for the coronation of monarchs in Britain.

"It is the oldest surviving piece of furniture still used for its original purpose. The coronation chair is extremely fragile. It has a complex layer structure which means that the gilding layers on it often flake off. So a lot of my work at the moment is sticking those layers of gilding back down and making sure it's completely sound for the coronation," noted the restorer Krista Blessley.

She says she has been working with the throne for four months now. During the process, she even managed to discover a previously unknown image of fingers on the back legs of the chair.

Blessley said the throne was originally decorated with gilding and colored glass with images of birds, plants, animals, saints, and the king himself. It was designed so that it would contain the so-called Skunk Stone, or the Stone of Destiny - a piece of red sandstone weighing 150 kilograms, which was considered a holy relic in Scotland and seized by Edward I. The Stone of Destiny is now in Edinburgh, but it will be temporarily delivered for the coronation.

During the last coronations, the throne was left uncovered, but in the 16th and 17th centuries, under the Tudors and Stuarts, it was customary to drape it with a richly embroidered gold veil.

It is reported that the throne was made by the order of Edward I, who ruled England from 1272 to 1307. Since then, it has not missed almost any coronation. In the 18th century and even the 19th century, tourists and schoolchildren often scratched something on the throne. One of the inscriptions, for example, reads: "P. Abbott slept in this chair from July 5 to 6, 1800." In 1914, the throne was damaged by a bomb, believed to have been planted by suffragettes.

Recall that Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain passed away on September 8, 2022, at Balmoral Castle in Scotland at the age of 96.

Her son, 73-year-old Prince Charles, became the new King.

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