St. Godehard, Romanesque church building in Hildesheim, Germany

St. Godehard is a three-aisled Romanesque basilica with a transept, a choir ambulatory with three radial chapels, a large octagonal crossing tower, and a westwork with two smaller towers and a west apse now used as a baptistery. The exterior walls are articulated with blind arcade friezes and pilasters. The northwest portal is the most impressive, its tympanum showing Christ flanked by the bishops Godehard and Epiphanius.

Construction began in 1133 and concluded in 1172 when Bishop Adelog consecrated the church to honor Saint Mary and Saint Godehard. This completion after roughly 40 years demonstrates the extended timescales of medieval church building projects.

The church is dedicated to Saint Godehard, bishop of Hildesheim from 1022 to 1038 and canonized in 1133, the year construction began. His relics drew a steady stream of pilgrims through the High Middle Ages. The monastery stayed Catholic through the Reformation while the city's parish churches turned Lutheran, and it survived until secularization in 1803.

The church stands at Godehardsplatz 3 on the southern edge of the old town, a short walk from the market square. The former monastery buildings next door now house the North German University of Applied Sciences for Law, so parts of the complex are not open to visitors. The northwest portal, whose tympanum shows Christ with Saints Godehard and Epiphanius, is the most elaborate entrance.

The church was hit in air raids on 13 and 22 February and 22 March 1945, mainly on the north aisle, but the damage was repaired the same year. It was the only church in Hildesheim's centre to escape major destruction, so the bishop's throne stood here until the cathedral was reconsecrated in 1960.