St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Church at Hildesheim
The number of Wikipedia languages with an article is our measure of how widely known a site is. Counts of visitors and wishes will appear once enough people use the app.
Seals, want-to-go and the year you stood here are recorded in the iPhone app.
How it came to be
In 815 Louis the Pious founded the diocese of Hildesheim, and a chapel of St Mary was built first. Bishop Altfrid built a three-aisled cathedral in 872, and after a fire in 1046 Bishop Hezilo rebuilt it on the old foundations.
In 1010 Bishop Bernward began the Benedictine church of St Michael on a hill north of the town and dedicated it on 29 September 1022. Its symmetrical plan, with a choir at each end, is typical of Ottonian Romanesque. Bronze doors and a bronze column from Bernward's time survive, as does a painted ceiling of the Tree of Jesse made around 1130 from more than 1,300 pieces of wood.
An air raid on 22 March 1945 left both churches badly damaged; St Michael's was rebuilt by 1957 and the cathedral by 1960. The Thousand-year Rose on the cathedral's apse was burnt above ground, but its roots survived and put out 25 new shoots that spring. The two churches were inscribed in 1985.
Data: Wikidata (CC0). Photos: Wikimedia Commons, under each photo’s license. Prototype; may contain errors. We measure usage anonymously to improve the app (PostHog, EU).