The plan of the church is unusual in that the chancel is at the west end of the building rather than the east as a result of the design instructions left by Saint Bridget.

[1] Maribo church was originally dedicated to the Virgin Mary and to Saint Bridget of Vadstena (1303–1373), a Catholic and the founder of the Bridgettine order of nuns and monks.

[2] [3] In 1418, in connection with recognition of the monastery, the pope decreed that the town should be renamed the community of Mary (Habitaculum Mariae) leading to the adoption of Danish Marienbo, later Maribo.

[4] A note from the journal of Vadstena Abbey, the mother church, states that monks left to found a monastery in Skimminge in 1416.

[1][5] The Gothic cathedral is built of red brick as a hall church with a nave flanked by equally high aisles with a common roof.

The galleries above the aisles and at the east end of the church were built to accommodate the nuns who had to be carefully separated from the monks and the congregation.

[5] Of particular note is the Bridget Altar (Birgitta Alter) from the late 15th century with a painting of a woman in flowing clothes, thought either to be St. Bridgit or the Virgin Mary.