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Outside a medieval town masons working on the town-wall are depicted attacking a gentlefaced bishop with stones, trowels and hammers. A similar scene is represented on a panel from Újszandec in which heathen Prussians are seen driving away the evangelizer St. Adalbert with gestures similar to those of the masons, their arms raised to throw stones. The cult of St. Adalbert, a Prague bishop of the tenth century, spread quickly to Hungary and Poland. For instance, the cathedral in Esztergom was dedicated to him and his image is represented there on the ornate main portal, the twelfth century "Porta speciosa". At his burial place in Gniezno (Poland), a twelfth century bronze gate in the local cathedral evidences his cult. However, it is comparatively rare to find representations of the life of this saint on surviving Gothic altarpieces.
The relationship between this panel and Polish painting of the period - very clearly evident on the altar of the Holy Trinity in the Cathedral in Cracow - has long been known, but research workers have not, so far, studied the significance of the unusually emphasized "veduta" that fills the greater part of the picture and seems to represent an ideal view of Cracow. "Vedute" depicted on panels can seldom be identified with any certainty and are never equal to engravings in respect of topographic accuracy. Nevertheless, in this painting, several emphasized motifs lead us to suppose that the picture represents Cracow: the clear representation of the castle hill, the Wawel, and the wall-enclosed town with its numerous churches, among them the one dedicated to the Virgin Mary, with a collapsed tower as described in the legend. On the badly damaged reverse of the panel are paintings of a Franciscan monk and a burning church reminiscent of the Franciscan church in Cracow.
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