Coventry is world-renowned for its multicultural citizenship and spirit of international friendship. It has 26 twinned cities from 18 countries. To celebrate these international links, the city gardeners have planted 18 triangular groups of trees in various parks around the … Continue reading →
Also created by Jochen Gerz, the Future Monument is a glass obelisk surrounded by plaques celebrating former enemies that have become friends to Coventry, while a smaller ring of plaques represents many of the different communities to be found in … Continue reading →
The Public Bench is a typical work by German conceptual artist Jochen Gerz which involves the relationship between art and life, between history and memory. The wall behind the bench is decorated with plaques celebrating personal friendships, placed there by … Continue reading →
Opened in 2003, Millennium Place, outside the Coventry Transport Museum, features artworks concerned with friendship and reconciliation on both a personal and community level.
Continue reading →The city’s main theatre is named in honour of the capital of Serbia, once Yugoslavia, which was twinned with Coventry in 1957 and provided a gift of wood for the interior of the new building. On the building’s street frontage … Continue reading →
Founded in 1344, the medieval St John the Baptist Church has seen much over its long history. The church hosts a copy of a prayer of atonement, from the Black Prince, seeking peace following his battles in France. In the … Continue reading →
Lidice Place stands at the entrance to the Lower Precinct. It contains a decorative plaque commemorating another of Coventry’s friendship links born out of suffering, this time with Lidice. Lidice is a village in the Czech Republic not far from … Continue reading →
Ira Aldridge was an American and later British actor, playwright, and theatre manager born in New York City in 1807. In the early 1820s he started acting in the African Company which built its own theatre but, confronted with persistent … Continue reading →
George Wagstaffe’s sculpture The Phoenix stands in Hertford Street near Dresden Place. Wagstaffe is an English sculptor born in 1939 in Coventry and is still based here. He grew up surrounded by the destruction and devastation of war and also … Continue reading →
When the Second World War started, the city of Dresden, capital of the state of Saxony in the east of Germany was a major communications hub and manufacturing centre. The extensive bombing of Dresden during the final months of the … Continue reading →
Godiva was a historic person, the wife of Leofric, the 11th century Earl of Mercia. Legend has it that she rode naked through the streets of Coventry – covered only by her long hair –to gain a remission of the … Continue reading →
Coventry’s links with Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, were established in 1944 as a result of both cities experiencing the devastation of the Second World War. The epic battle for the city raged from the spring of 1942 to February 1943. More … Continue reading →
Before visiting Holy Trinity Church we advise you check here to find whether it will be open: https://www.holytrinitycoventry.org.uk/ This church, soaked in history, is a living, worshipping community of over 300 people a week. As a “Cross of nails” church, … Continue reading →
The construction of this beautiful Council House was interrupted by the First World War and finally completed in 1920. It contains many of the city council’s offices and the Council Chamber where the city councillors meet to conduct their business. … Continue reading →
St. Mary’s Guild Hall is one of the finest surviving medieval guildhalls in England. It was first built in the 1340s and enlarged and embellished at the end of the fifteenth century. The guildhall originally served as the headquarters of … Continue reading →
On 6 June 1944, a Stalingrad Friendship society was formed in Coventry and this is often taken as the first example of Coventry’s city twinning, though the official twinning came seven years later. Stalingrad later changed its name to Volgograd. … Continue reading →
The Peace and Reconciliation Gallery within the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum reflects Coventry’s experience of war and the city’s post-war commitment to reconciliation. It explores themes of friendship, peace, and reconciliation at local, regional and international levels. The gallery … Continue reading →
The font is carved into a boulder that was donated by the government of Jordan as a gesture towards Muslim, Christian and Jewish cooperation. It was shipped from a hillside near Bethlehem in 1960 and placed before John Piper’s stunning … Continue reading →
The city of Kiel on the north German coast had long been a major port for the German navy. During World War 2 it was one of the major naval bases and centres of submarine production. As a result, Kiel … Continue reading →
When the Cathedral was destroyed by fire in November 1940, nothing was left apart from rubble, a few charred wooden beams, twisted metal girders, bits of wire, and a great profusion of nails of all sizes lying everywhere, with every … Continue reading →
The Battle of Stalingrad was the bloodiest and longest of the Second World War. Late in 1942 the German Sixth Army reached the pivotal city of Stalingrad. Winter was setting in. Hitler declared it must be taken, whatever the cost. … Continue reading →
In November 1945, long before work had started on the new Cathedral, the West Crypt of the ruined Cathedral which had escaped destruction was dedicated to the principle of a Chapel of Unity binding the Church of England and the … Continue reading →
Welcome to Coventry’s new Cathedral. Its existence, and the reputation of Coventry as a city of Peace and Reconciliation, is largely due to one man. We have already seen how, on the night of 14 November 1940, the boss of … Continue reading →
The planting of Peace Poles was started in Japan as a grassroots project in 1976. Peace Poles have four or more sides displaying the message ‘May Peace Prevail on Earth’ in a different language on each side. Planting a Peace … Continue reading →
In 1968, John Lennon and Yoko Ono planted two acorns for peace in the Cathedral grounds. They symbolized the meeting of John and Yoko and the union of their two cultures. Planting these acorns was the first of many peace … Continue reading →
There are tombs for unknown soldiers in many countries. But the United Nations estimates that 50 percent of people killed in war are civilians. And they are all as dead as any soldier. So the American peace activist Lewis Randa … Continue reading →
This sculpture is dedicated to the civilians killed or injured in aerial bombing on both sides of wars, past and present. It was carved by German sculptor Helmut Heinze who was raised in the city of Dresden and was very … Continue reading →
This is one of the most famous works of Josefina de Vasconcellos. She was an English sculptor of Brazilian origin who worked in bronze, stone, wood, lead and perspex. She was at one time the world’s oldest living sculptor. She … Continue reading →
On 14 November, 1990, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother attended an international service of remembrance and reconciliation in Coventry’s new cathedral to mark the 50th anniversary of the Coventry Blitz. During the service she presented a cross of … Continue reading →
The next day, news of the Coventry blitz was flashed round the world by radio. The Government considered it right to release the story of the all-night bombing of the civilian population, of the hundreds of lives lost, of the … Continue reading →
It is seven o’clock on the night of 14 November, 1940. Four men are standing on the roof of Coventry’s Gothic 14th-century St Michael’s Cathedral, their eyes searching the black night sky, their ears straining, straining to hear the sound … Continue reading →
Thank you for visiting Coventry’s Peace Trail. The trail consists of around 30 sites associated with peace in Coventry city centre, but you can visit as many locations as you wish. It begins in the Old Cathedral, the bombing of … Continue reading →