St. Mary’s Chapel

Remains of murals were preserved in the vault and the front of St. Mary's Chapel. The vault features a total of six layers, of which the older four paintings can barely be discerned. The fifth layer consists of reddish brown squares with four-petalled rosettes at intersections and the squares filled with alternating blue and red six-pointed starss. The painting date back to the early 14th century.

Depicted above the window to the East is a late Gothic mural of the coronation of Virgin Mary by Christ and God the Father. Over the portal to the West, Hildegard and Berta, daughters of king Louis the German, are shown with the deer from the founding legend of the Fraumünster abbey. Adjacent, towards the North, Christophorus is portrayed in late Gothic style. The youngest, high-quality painting makes up the faded sixth layer on the northern side of the vault and of the eastern wall.

Towards the East, a mural depict the adoration of the Magi (Three Wise Men). Left of the eastern window,  two women are shown in front of each other. Previously interpreted as Madonna, this interpretation is quite questionable. This in Zürich standards rather modern painting by Hans Leu the Younger was commissioned by the last abbess Katharina von Zimmern according to the abbey's records.

Source: Das Fraumünster in Zürich. Gesellschaft für Schweizerische Kunstgeschichte GSK, Bern 2018.