St Mary’s Basilica is located on the corner of the large main square in Krakow. We decided to take a self-guided tour of the Church of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven also known as Saint Mary’s Basilica.

The basilica was built-in the 14th century and unique with a very interesting past.  There are two towers in the church and the northern tower was designed to serve as the watch tower for the entire city.

The northern watchtower has a trumpeter who plays a tune at the top of every hour.

This tune is called the Hejnał mariacki and is played every hour of every day of the year. The tune stops in mid note, to commemorate the famous 13th century trumpeter, who was shot in the throat while sounding the alarm before the Mongol attack on the city.

We went inside the church and we were amazed at the brightness of the ornate designs of the walls and ceiling.

It was very colourful and bright in the church and everywhere we looked there were ornate features.

We came across an interesting head in an arch framing a doorway.

We went through the church looking at the feature of the different areas.

The Gothic main altar piece of the church was very stunning and interesting. It was carved in wood by Veit Stoss a German sculptor in 1489, and was the largest triptych (3 wooden panels hinged together) at the time.

The details of the altar were incredible but what was more incredible was the history of the altar.

In 1941, during the German occupation, the dismantled altarpiece was shipped to the Third Reich. It was recovered after the war in 1946 in Bavaria, hidden in the basement of the heavily bombed Nuremberg Castle. The altar was put back in its place at the Basilica 10 years later.

The tour of St Mary’s Basilica was quite enjoyable and interesting.  We discovered that the Main square in the Krakow was a former cemetery. At the beginning of the 19th century, the cemetery was shut down and replaced with the main square.

“Do widzenia i dobry dzień”