Hildesheim is a town that was destroyed and put back together. On 22 March 1945, bombers flattened most of the old town, and the cathedral and the church of St Michael were left as burnt shells. After the war, the people rebuilt them, stone by stone, and both are now UNESCO World Heritage, listed in 1985. They are among the finest examples of Ottonian architecture in Europe, from the years around the year 1000.
The man behind them was Bishop Bernward, a scholar and artist who ruled the diocese from 993 to 1022. He built St Michael's as his own burial church, with a clear, geometric plan, two choirs and a nave with alternating columns and pillars, and he commissioned bronze doors for the cathedral, cast in one piece, with scenes from Genesis and the life of Christ. The doors, which now stand at the entrance, are a remarkable survival, and so is a bronze column that spirals with scenes from the life of Christ. The painted wooden ceiling in St Michael's, from the thirteenth century, was taken apart and stored during the war, and then put back.
The cathedral courtyard holds a famous rose bush, the Thousand-Year Rose, said to be as old as the cathedral itself. According to legend, Louis the Pious, hunting in the forest, hung his reliquary of the Virgin on a wild rose, and when he returned the rose had grown so that the relic could not be moved, and he took it as a sign to found a church here. In 1945 the rose burned with the cathedral, but new shoots appeared from the roots and it bloomed again.
Hildesheim has about a hundred thousand people, so fuel and food are easy, with the old market square rebuilt in its medieval form and cafes under the half-timbered fronts. The countryside around is the gentle hill country of Lower Saxony, with the Harz mountains to the south, and the roads are quiet and well kept. Spring is the time for the rose, which usually blooms in late May. Early morning is best for the courtyard.