Hildesheim Cathedral and St Michael's

Hildesheim's two churches are listed together because of what Bishop Bernward commissioned around the year 1000. The cathedral holds a pair of bronze doors, each leaf cast in a single pour, with scenes from Genesis facing the life of Christ. Beside them stands a bronze column spiralling with reliefs in the manner of a Roman triumphal column but carrying gospel scenes instead. There is also a wheel chandelier the size of a small room and, growing against the outside of the apse, a wild rose long claimed as the oldest in the world. St Michael's, a short walk uphill, is the other half: a flat painted wooden ceiling showing the tree of Jesse, rare for having survived at all.

What you actually see

• The Bernward Doors - bronze leaves cast around 1015, each in a single pour, with paired biblical scenes.
• The Christ Column - a bronze column of spiralling reliefs, Roman in form and gospel in subject.
• St Michael's ceiling - a painted wooden tree of Jesse spanning the nave, best studied from the floor.
• The thousand year rose - a wild rose trained against the apse wall on an iron frame.

When to go

Both churches open most of the year and both are free, and both close to visitors during services, which is the main thing to check before setting out. The rose flowers for a short spell in late May or early June. Winter afternoons go dark inside St Michael's, where the ceiling needs daylight, so aim for the middle of the day.

Honest expectations

The city around the churches is mostly plain modern building with one reconstructed market square, so there is little else to fill a day. The cathedral interior is spare and can feel cold after the reputation of its treasures. The doors and column sit in dim corners with limited explanation in English.

Nearby

The royal gardens at Herrenhausen in Hanover, the castle above the Leine at Marienburg, and the Weser hills.