Couvent des Dominicains de Colmar

What makes it special

The painting hangs in the choir, at the far end of a long, bright nave carried on slender piers. Tall lancet windows with 14th-century stained glass throw coloured light across whitewashed walls. This is a church of the preaching friars, and its restrained Gothic interior keeps your eye on the panel.

Up close the panel is large, 200 by 114.5 centimetres. The Virgin sits in an enclosed garden of roses, which stands for Paradise, and the whole picture is a celebration of Mary. Go close for the flowers, gold, gems and birds around her.

Schongauer painted it in 1473 for Saint-Martin, Colmar's largest church. It was stolen in 1972 and has hung here since its recovery.

Visiting

One painting is the reason to come, and it hangs at the far end of the nave, in the choir. Look at it whole from the back of the church before you walk up to it, then go close for the detail. Beyond the painting, the church has permanent exhibits to take in, so the visit is not the panel alone.

Arrive at the morning opening on a Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday to be ahead of the mid-morning groups. The doors shut at 12.45 and 5.45pm, a quarter of an hour before each session ends, so do not turn up late in either.

Tips

Keep your voice down inside: this is still a sacred place, and the quiet is part of looking at the painting properly.

The friars' own altarpiece is not in this church. Its sixteen interior panels, which tell the Passion from the Entry into Jerusalem to Pentecost, are in the Unterlinden Museum, so see the two on the same day if you can.