First shattered during the Reformation, the 15th-century stained glass is rife with religious imagery, comical animal scenes and even portraits of the original donors who funded its construction

November 10, 2026 12:27 p.m.

A conservator inspects a stained-glass fragment depicting a bearded man’s face, attributed to master glazier John Thornton of Coventry. Jamie Gray

During World War II, the medieval stained glass of Coventry Cathedral was dismantled and hidden in crates to survive air raids. Now, an ambitious cataloging project has digitized roughly 12,000 fragments, making them publicly accessible for the first time in decades.

On November 14, 1940, German bombers obliterated the cathedral, making it the only British cathedral destroyed during the Blitz . The glass survived, stashed in 30 wooden crates in the rectory cellars of a nearby village, remaining there until 1957.…