The Marienkirche stands just metres from the Reinoldikirche on the Ostenhellweg, making the old city centre's surviving medieval buildings unusually concentrated. It is a Gothic church of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, largely rebuilt after wartime damage but retaining its original structure and several significant artworks.
The chief reason to visit is the Berswordt Altar — a magnificent winged altarpiece depicting scenes from the Life and Passion of Christ, painted around 1390 in a style that bridges the International Gothic and early Flemish schools. The quality is comparable to contemporaneous work in Cologne and marks Dortmund as a place of genuine late-medieval artistic ambition, not merely a trading depot. The church is open daily and admission is free.