Coventry Cathedral

The Coventry Cathedral (also known as St Michael 's Cathedral known) in Coventry ( England) is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Coventry and the Diocese.

The city had three cathedrals in the course of time. The first was St. Mary's, a monastic building, of which only a few ruins remain. The second was St Michael's, which was destroyed in November 1940 in a German air raid on Coventry. There remained only the large tower and some exterior walls remaining. The third cathedral is the new and very modern St Michael 's Cathedral, which was immediately grown after the destruction of its predecessor to the ruins.

• 3.1 structure
• 3.2 Equipment

St Mary's

St Mary's Priory and Cathedral was founded in 1043 by Leofric, Earl of Mercia and his wife Lady Godiva as a Benedictine monastery. However, already began shortly after the first conversion work. Between 1095 and 1102 laid Bishop Robert de Limesey the bishopric of Lichfield and Coventry until the 13th century was from the little monastery, a cathedral with about 130 m in length and numerous large outbuildings. 1539 lost the Cathedral their status, when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries Catholic.

St Michael's

The St Michael 's Church was built in the late 14th or early 15th century. It was the largest parish church in England when it was raised in 1918 at the founding of the Diocese of Coventry in the status of a cathedral.

On November 14, 1940, the cathedral was almost completely destroyed in an air raid by the German Luftwaffe. Only the church tower and the outer walls remained. These ruins are now hallowed ground.

In the base of the ruins of the Voluntary Action Reconciliation Service for Peace in 1961 built an international meeting of reconciliation.

Wooden cross, cross of nails and Stalingradmadonna

In the clean-up after the raid was Richard Howard, the then provost of Coventry, make two of the burnt roof beams of the ruins with a simple wooden cross. This wooden cross stands today in the sanctuary of the ruins of the old cathedral.

Another, smaller cross was composed of three carpenter nails the old cathedral and is now located in the new building of the cathedral. This so-called " Coventry Cross of Nails " became the symbol of the Cross of Nails ecumenical movement, which originated in Coventry and of belonging to more than 160 churches around the world today. As an outward sign of reconciliation, each member of the movement gets a nail cross, which is like the original cross made of three nails of the old cathedral.

One of the nail crosses in 1988 donated as a sign of reconciliation of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, which was also destroyed by air raids and is considered a " sister church " Coventry Cathedral for the architectural concept ( conservation as a ruin and adjacent new building). A copy of the Stalingrad Madonna - a drawing, who prepared at the Battle of Stalingrad Kurt Reuber Christmas 1942 - now hangs in a chapel of the cathedral. With similar symbols like the cross are also the original in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and another copy in the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Volgograd to see a reconciliation between three former enemy countries.

St Michael 's Cathedral

The new St Michael 's Cathedral was built next to the remains of the old and designed by Basil Spence and Arup.

Building

Spence insisted to have made ​​as a garden of remembrance the old cathedral and the new grow so that the two buildings together form a church. When searching for an architect his design from over 100 works submitted was selected.

The foundation stone of the new cathedral was laid on 23 March 1956 by Queen Elizabeth, 1960 Basil Spence of her - in recognition of his services to Coventry - as a Knight Bachelor knighted.

The inauguration of the new cathedral was on 25 May 1962. Requiem For this occasion was on 30 May Benjamin Britten's War premiered. As with its German counterpart, the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, caused the modern design of many controversies.

The unconventional spire ( Flèche ) was provided by a helicopter to the flat roof of the cathedral. The interior is known for a large tapestry with the image of Christ by Graham Sutherland and a building designed by John Piper abstract window in the baptistery.

Equipment

The organ was built in the 1950s by the organ builder Harrison & Harrison. The modern design in its prospectus instrument is divided into two sites - north and south of the choir, with the front toward the nave. On the north side there are swell and solo organ, on the south side of the Great organ. The pipes of Choir and Pedal organs located on either side of the altar. The instrument has a total of 72 registers to four manual and pedal works. The tracker action is electro-pneumatic.