The Coventry Cathedral is unique among cathedrals in that it no longer stands; the building burned to the ground on the night of November 14, 1940 as a result of a devastating Luftwaffe bombing raid. The city of Coventry, targeted in large part because of its importance in armament production for the British forces, chose not to rebuild on top of the ruins but instead to build a new cathedral just next to them and leave the burnt-out structure as a monument to the war effort. Somehow the original tower emerged from the raid unharmed and still pierces the sky amongst the rust colored ruins. Coventry was the site of a Christian nunnery as early as the seventh century, and by 1220, the monastery begun in 1043 had become quite prosperous and had built, in addition to the abbey's own Cathedral, two churches in its immediate vicinity: the Parish Church of the Holy Trinity and the Parish Church of St Michael. The original Cathedral fell into decay after its monastic community was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1538, and by 1918, when the new Diocese of Coventry was created, nothing remained of the old Cathedral. The title of Coventry Cathedral then fell to the old church of St Michael; it was this building that was destroyed in the second world war. What little remains of St Michael's church still stands on the hill in middle of Coventry, and just next to it is Coventry's third Cathedral, consecrated in 1962. The image below depicts what was once the interior side of a window that has since succumbed to the cold English rain and some colorful vegetation.