New technology provides digital recreation of how cathedral used to look
It was famously destroyed by the Luftwaffe in November 1940, with heavy bombing leaving only its tower, spire, outer wall and the tomb of its first bishop.
But Coventry Cathedral has been virtually rebuilt thanks to new technology which will provide a digital recreation of what it looked like before the Blitz.
An app using Google Tango will detect the position of visitors relative to their surroundings and provide a reconstruction of the 14th-century building.
Recreated features of the bombed building include the vast medieval stained glass windows, stone pillars, wooden vaulted ceiling and wooden pews.
A virtual reality version has also been created by developers so anyone can get an immersive 3D view of the old cathedral using a Google Cardboard headset.
The Rising Ruins project has been created by the Rising Global Peace Forum, a partnership between Coventry University, the cathedral and the city council.
Members of the public will be able to try out the technology at the Rising 16 conference in the city next month from November 15 to 16.
Rising Global Peace Forum director Ciarán Norris said: ‘Rising Ruins uses the latest technology to tell an old and familiar story in a new, vivid way.
‘For the first time in three quarters of a century, people will be able to step inside the ruins of the old cathedral and see how it looked before the Blitz.’
The software is being developed by technology experts Sean Graham and Andrew Brooks at Coventry University.
Mr Graham said: ‘In order to build an accurate digital reconstruction of the building we were able to use items from the Cathedral’s extensive archive including many documents which hadn’t seen the light of day for many decades.
‘As far as we’re aware this is the first time this Google Tango technology has been used to rebuild a historically significant place in this way.’
He added: ‘We hope that in the future we might be able to use it to create other significant buildings – particularly those which have been destroyed by conflict.’
Coventry Cathedral was bombed on November 14, 1940, when a ten-hour German raid devastated the city - leaving two thirds of its buildings damaged or destroyed.
Following the war a competition was launched to design a new cathedral, and the foundation stone was laid by the Queen in 1956.
The building was then consecrated six years later - and the shell of the medieval cathedral and its spire remain today as a memorial garden.
Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2016 7:37 pm