St. Maria im Kapitol (St. Mary’s in the Capitol) is located on the site of the ancient Roman Capitoline temple. The present church was built in the 11th century. The temple’s proportions were retained for the nave of the church. The construction of the church was initiated by the Benedictine abbess Ida, a granddaughter of Emperor Otto II. Her imperial heritage and the sense of status associated with it are clearly expressed in the size of the church and the crypt.
The surviving furnishings were also of the highest quality at the time they were made. They include two wooden door leaves from about 1065, an expressive forked cross consecrated in 1304, Late Gothic stained-glass windows and a Renaissance rood screen that separates the choir from the nave.
