Where in London would you find an inscription with the Latin numerals "MDCLXVI"?
These Latin numerals (exactly in descending order) have the values
M:1000
D: 500
C: 100
L: 50
X: 10
V: 5
I: 1
Put them together and you have "1666", the year of the Great Fire of London, which started in a bakery on Pudding Lane. Nearby, at the corner of Fish Street Hill and Monument Street, is the site of St Margaret's Church (the first to be destroyed) where now stands the Monument to the Great Fire. The Monument, designed by Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke, is a fluted Doric column built of Portland stone topped with a gilded urn of fire. On its north face is a Latin inscription describing how the fire started and the damage it caused.
It begins "ANNO CHRISTI MDCLXVI…" ("In the year of Christ 1666") and then continues (in translation) as follows: "…the second day of September, eastward from hence, at the distance of 202 feet, (the height of this column) about midnight, a most terrible fire broke out, which, driven on by a high wind, not only wasted the adjacent parts, but also places very remote, with incredible noise and fury: it consumed 89 churches, the city gates, Guildhall, many public structures, hospitals, schools, libraries, a vast number of stately edifices, 13,200 dwelling-houses, 400 streets; of 26 wards, it utterly destroyed 15, and left 8 others shattered and half burnt. The ruins of the city were 436 acres, from the Tower by the Thames side to the Temple church, and from the north-east gate along the city wall to Holborn-bridge."
More Info:
en.wikipedia.org
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