About this place
Rising on the highest hill of the old town, the Church of St. Stephan looks from the outside like many another Gothic hall church, its pale walls crowned by an octagonal bell tower. Step through its doors, however, and the ordinary world falls away into an ocean of blue. Between 1978 and his death in 1985, the Jewish artist Marc Chagall created nine radiant stained glass windows here, scenes drawn from the Old Testament that glow in shades of cobalt, sapphire and midnight. Founded in 990 by Archbishop Willigis, the same churchman who began Mainz Cathedral, the church survived a gunpowder explosion and the bombs of the Second World War before being reborn as a quiet monument to reconciliation between Jews and Germans, and between France and Germany.
Key facts
- 990 year founded — Established by Archbishop Willigis, who also began the great Mainz Cathedral
- 9 windows — Stained glass windows created here by Marc Chagall, his only works for a German church
- 177.6 square metres — Total glass surface of the Chagall windows glowing across the choir and transept
📍 Stefansplatz, 55116, Mainz