March 1945

After more than five years of fear and devastation, World War II was almost over.

But for the people of Hildesheim, Germany, things had never looked more bleak.

This city was practically destroyed, ordinary people's homes, the medieval town square,

historic world famous churches, all of it had been turned a rubble.

Further casualties of a war that had seemed to devour everything.

Somehow, though, one of the city's greatest treasures had survived.

Maybe it's very greatest.

And certainly it's most fragile.

A Rosa Kanina, or wild dog rose.

A sprawling green shrub with white petals that peaked out from leafy green tendrils.

Compared to everything else that was destroyed, the churches, the houses,

it might seem odd that anyone cared about a bush.

But the bush was special.

Because this wasn't even the first or second war that it had survived.

This shaggy, sprawling rose had been alive since the Middle Ages.

I'm Dylan Thoris and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible

and wondrous places.

Today, we're visiting a rose that's been growing next to St. Mary's Cathedral in the German

city of Hildesheim for over a thousand years.

In fact, it's why Hildesheim exists in the first place.

After this.

...