A catadioptric projection objective for imaging a pattern provided in an object plane of the projection objective onto an image plane of the projection objective comprises: a first objective part for imaging the pattern provided in the object plane into a first intermediate image; a second objective part for imaging the first intermediate image into a second intermediate image; a third objective part for imaging the second intermediate imaging directly onto the image plane; wherein a first concave mirror having a first continuous mirror face and at least a second concave mirror having a second continuous mirror face are disposed upstream of the second intermediate image; a first pupil face is formed between the objective face and the first intermediate image; a second pupil face is formedbetween the first intermediate image and the second intermediate image; a third pupil face is formed between the second intermediate image and the image face; at least a plate having a substantially parallel plate surface is disposed near the first pupil face of in the first objective part; and at least a plate surface is non-spatialized for correcting the image error.