Home»All Photographs»Germany World Heritage (click to see more)»St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Church at Hildesheim»St Michael's Church at Hildesheim

St. Michael's Church is one of the most important churches in Ottonic (Early-Romanesque) style. It is a double-choir basilica with two transepts and a square tower at each crossing. The west choir is emphasized by anambulatory and a crypt. The ground plan of the building follows a geometrical conception, in which the square of the transept crossing in the ground plan constitutes the key measuring unit for the entire church. The square units are defined by the "double" alteration of columns and piers. There are 2 entrances on the each apse, and 4 entrances on the north and south side of the church.Beside the choir and the cloister, the painted wooden ceiling (around 1230) is most famous of the Church's interior. It shows the genealogical tree of Jesus Christ. Bishop Bernward wanted to construct the pillars of the nave in the Niedersächsischer Stützenwechsel style, which means square pillars alternating with round ones. Above them, the wall closes with the clerestory, whose round arch windows attract the light from outside. Furthermore, light shines through the Gothic windows of the lower aisles beyond the arcade. Their ceilings are stone vaults.