St. Michael's Cathedral is Coventry's best-known landmark and visitor attraction.  The building that we now know as "The Old Cathedral" was formally the parish church of St. Michael.  It dates from the 1300's.  With it's towering spire of 295 feet, a building length of 293 feet, and width of 140 feet, St Michael's was the largest parish church in England.  In 1918 it was finally given cathedral status. 

On 14 November 1940, Coventry was targeted by Germany's Luftwaffe, thanks to its high concentration of armaments to aid the British war effort.  The attack was carried out by 500 German bombers which dropped 150,000 incendiaries, 503 tons of high explosives, and 130 parachute mines in an attack that lasted for 11 hours, making it the single most concentrated attack on a British city during World War II. 

Approximately half an hour after the raid began, the first of many incendiary bombs landed on the oak roof of St. Michael's Cathedral.  As the number of incendiaries landing on the old roof increased, the fires became impossible to control and they eventually consumed the once great structure.  The next morning, when the blitz was over, all that remained was a shell full of rubble, and the magnificent tower and spire.  In addition, more than 4,330 homes were destroyed and three-quarters of the city's factories damaged.  Amongst the rubble lay human remains, some of whom were never identified, of 554 men, women and children, along with 865 injured.

Shortly after the destruction, the cathedral stonemason noticed that two of the charred medieval roof timbers had fallen in the shape of a cross.  He set them up in the ruins and later they were placed on the altar - where they remain today.

The decision to rebuild was taken the morning after the destruction.  Rebuilding would not be an act of defiance, but rather a sign of faith, trust and hope for the future of the world.  The new very modern Coventry Cathedral was designed by Sir Basil Spence and opened in 1962 next to the ruins of the old Cathedral.  One enters the Cathedral from a column of steps.  At the top of the steps, turn left and you'll enter the hallowed ruins of Old St. Michael's.  Turn right and you'll enter the new, modern St. Michael's.

In the postwar years Coventry developed an international reputation as Europe's major 'city of peace and reconciliation'.  After the war it became a twin-city with Dresden, Germany, as an act of peace, since both cities had been heavily bombed.  It was the first city to twin with another city - now a worldwide practice.