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The Church Of St. Michael – Hildesheim, Germany – UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List .

Posted on May 12, 2017

The Church Of St. Michael – Hildesheim, Germany – UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List .

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

Abbey Church of St. Michael’s was constructed between 1001 and 1031 under the direction of Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim (993-1022) as the chapel of his Benedictine monastery. Bernward named the church after the archangel Michael, the Christian angel of protection who carries the deceased to heaven, because he planned to be buried in the Michaeliskirche. Bernward’s plans were spoiled by his death in 1022, eleven years before the completion and consecration of the church in 1033. Bernward’s successor, Godehard, transferred Bernward’s remains to the crypt following its completion.
The church has a high level of symmetry, both north-south as well as east-west, evident from this printed image which is in fact a mirror image.

In 1186, after a reconstruction following a fire, Hildesheim’s Bishop Adelog of Dorstedt – assisted by Tammo, Prince-Bishop of Verden – reconsecrated St. Michael’s.

When the Reformation was adopted in Hildesheim in 1542, St. Michael’s Church became Lutheran, but the Benedictine monastery remained existing until it was secularized in 1803. The monks would still use the church and its crypt, which remain Catholic to this day.

St. Michael’s Church was destroyed in an air raid during World War II on 22 March 1945, but reconstruction was begun in 1950 and completed in 1957. In 1985, the church became a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site, along with the Cathedral of Hildesheim, its collection of medieval treasures and its 1000-year old rosebush. SOURCE :WIKIPEDIA