The altar of the Dormition of the Mother of God in St. Mary’s Basilica is one of the greatest late Gothic European masterpieces.

The main altar of St. Mary’s Church in Kra­ków is deco­ra­ted with an altar­pie­ce by Veit Stoss, which is cal­led sim­ply the Altar of Veit Stoss, the Altar of Dormi­tion of the Mother of God, or St. Mary’s Altar.

The work on the Altar of Veit Stoss con­ti­nu­ed from 1477 until 1489. The altar is made of three types of wood. The struc­tu­re is made of hard oak, the back­gro­und is made of ligh­ter but equ­al­ly as strong larch, whi­le the figu­res are sculp­ted in soft and fle­xi­ble linden.

The reta­ble of St. Mary’s Altar is a pen­tap­tych, which means that it has five wings. It is com­po­sed of the cen­tre part with sculp­tu­res, a pair of ope­ning inter­nal wings, and a pair of fixed exter­nal wings. Both pairs of wings are deco­ra­ted with reliefs. The struc­tu­re is com­ple­ted with a relief pre­del­la set on the altar top and open­work finial with solid sculp­tu­re. The ico­no­gra­phic pro­gram­me was deve­lo­ped by a the­olo­gian and is dedi­ca­ted to the Vir­gin Mary and Her role in Salvation.

The pre­del­la pre­sents the Tree of Jes­se, which is a depic­tion in art of the ance­stors of Christ. The­re is a monu­men­tal gro­up of sculp­tu­res abo­ve, insi­de the altar’s recep­tac­le, which pre­sents the Dormi­tion of the Mother of God sur­ro­un­ded by apo­stles. The Assump­tion is pre­sen­ted abo­ve it. The finial of the reta­ble pre­sents the Coro­na­tion of the Vir­gin Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth.

The reliefs on the wings pre­sent sce­nes from the lives of Jesus Christ and the Vir­gin Mary.

The wings of the open altar pre­sent sce­nes of the joy of the Mother of God:
– Annunciation
– Christmas
– Ado­ra­tion of the Magi
– Resurrection
– Assumption
– Descent of the Holy Spirit

The wings of the clo­sed altar pre­sent twe­lve scenes.

On the left fixed wing:
– The meeting of Joachim and Anne
– The Birth of Mary
– Pre­sen­ta­tion of the Vir­gin Mary at the Temple

On the ope­ning wings:
– Pre­sen­ta­tion of Jesus Christ at the Temple
– Twe­lve-year-old Jesus teaching at the temple
– The Taking of Christ
– Crucifixion
– Descent from the Cross
– The Entomb­ment of Christ

On the right fixed wing:
– The appe­aran­ce of resur­rec­ted Christ to Mary Magdalene
– The Three Marys at the Tomb
– Descent of Christ into hell

The altar was for­mer­ly ope­ned only during major Church holi­days and the faith­ful could see only the wings of the clo­sed altar on other days.