Michaeliskirche (Church of St. Michael)

The Church of St. Michael (German Michaeliskirche) in Hildesheim, Germany, is an early-Romanesque church. It is in the list of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage since 1985.

Under Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim (993-1022) St. Michael's Church was built between 1010 and 1020 as minster of his Benedictine monastery. He called the church after the archangel Michael, who is the Christian angel of death carrying the deceased to heaven, because he planned to be buried in the Michaeliskirche. Yet it was not completed and consecrated before 1033, when Bernward had already died. His successor, Godehard, buried him in the crypt, where he lies up to now.

When the Reformation was adopted in Hildesheim in 1542, St. Michael's Church became Protestant, but the Benedictine monastery remained existing until it was secularized in 1803. The monks would still use the church and its crypt, which is Catholic up to now.

St. Michael's Church was destroyed in an air raid during World War II, but has been rebuilt during 1950-1957. In 1985, the church became part of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage, along with the Cathedral of Hildesheim, its collection of medieval treasures and its 1000-year old rosebush.