The Cathedral That Traded Beauty for Peace

When German bombs leveled Coventry Cathedral on November 14, 1940, the people of Coventry wept among the smoking ruins of their beloved fourteenth-century church. The sandstone pillars, the stained glass, the centuries of prayer soaked into those walls — all reduced to rubble in a single night. When architect Basil Spence unveiled his design for the new cathedral in 1951, many parishioners shook their heads.…