Hello, Samantha McGowan here. I am a producer on the show, and this week the Atlas Obscura

staff is sharing some of our favorite past episodes about objects. I might be stretching the

definition of an object a little bit by choosing this one, but I would like to share

an episode called The Thousand Year Rose. It's an oldie book goody. It's from the earliest days of the

show. And as you might guess from the title, it is about a very old rose bush that has managed to

survive through centuries and centuries and all kinds of different conditions, including through

war. I re-listen to this one recently because I'm currently working on a different story about

roses, and I just really loved it. There's some interesting stuff in there about

regeneration and life and destruction and all this good, juicy themes.

So I won't say anything more than that.

Enjoy.

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 to rubble. Just 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 Canina, 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,

...