Licensed Kraków city guides

St Mary’s Basilica

The Gothic church on the Main Square, with the Veit Stoss altarpiece and the hourly bugle call.

St Mary’s took its present Gothic form from the fourteenth century onwards, built over the foundations of an earlier Romanesque church. Its two mismatched towers are the giveaway: the taller served as the city watchtower, the shorter is the belfry.

Inside, the church is dominated by the altarpiece carved by Veit Stoss between 1477 and 1489, the largest surviving Gothic winged altarpiece in Europe. It is opened at a set time each day, which is worth building into your plan. The nave decoration dates from the end of the nineteenth century and is the work of Jan Matejko, assisted by the then young Stanisław Wyspiański and Józef Mehoffer, who also designed the chancel windows.

The bugle call is played from the taller tower every hour and always breaks off mid-phrase. Entry to the interior is ticketed separately and closed during services.

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