This volume presents papers by reputed art historians on the famous Marian Portal of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Lausanne (1st half of the 13th century). An analysis of the portal is provided from various perspectives examining its origins, its iconographic programme, its historical significance and its status in the context of European Gothic, for example of the sacred Gothic architecture of England and Northern France. Thus a detailed overall picture is built up of the 'Porta picta' in Lausanne as an important medieval artistic monument.