Zinar Castle

Over 800 years of history, the altar of Wit Stoss, the bugle call, the starry polychrome of the vault by Jan Matejko. And it's all in one church! And it is in the center of Krakow!

The first temple in this place was erected before the location of Krakow - since 1222 it served as the main parish church of the city. The pre-charter pedigree explains why St. Mary's Basilica is situated obliquely to the axis of the Main Market Square: when the first building was erected here, the Main Market Square did not exist yet! Its Romanesque remains are hidden 2.6 meters under the floor of today's church, similarly to the elements of the later early Gothic church.

The shape of the church, which we can admire to this day, dates back to the second half of the 14th century. The reconstruction began with the wealthy merchant Mikołaj Wierzynek, who founded a magnificent presbytery. A little later, a three-nave body was added to it, closing it from the west (i.e. from the Main Square) with two towers of unequal height. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the church was surrounded by side chapels, and in the mid-18th century, a porch designed by Franciszek Placidi, a Roman architect and sculptor considered the greatest late Baroque artist, was added to the main entrance.

It is worth starting your visit to St. Mary's Church from the outside. On its walls we can find numerous epitaphs of Krakow burghers - mementos of the parish cemetery that surrounded the church until the end of the 18th century (see: Mariacki Square).

Now it's time to raise our heads - let's look at the towers. The taller one, 81 m high, was crowned with a beautiful late gothic dome. This tower, known as the watchtower or bugle-call, has always belonged to the city: from the late Middle Ages, a guard was on it day and night, looking for fires, enemies approaching Krakow and other dangers. His duties also included playing the bugle-call, initially only at dawn and at sunset, as a signal to open and close the city gates, and from the 16th century - every hour. The bugle call has become a musical symbol of Krakow and is resounding to this day: it is played around the clock in all four corners of the world. But why does his melody suddenly stop? The legend tells about the guard who started to sound the alarm when he saw the approaching Tatar hordes. He managed to warn the city from attack, but in half the beat a Tatar arrow pierced his throat. That is why the bugle call melody ends so suddenly - in the same place where the heroic guard stopped playing it.

The second, lower tower (69 m) hides a set of five bells, of which the oldest Half-Sigismund comes from XV century. According to tradition, the strongman Stanisław Ciołek raised it to the tower without helpers.

The difference in the height of both towers, unjustified by architectural plans, explains the legend. Two brothers built them. When the younger one realized that his tower did not match the other's height or beauty, he killed the older brother with a knife out of envy. Remorse did not give him peace, however - on the day of the dedication of the temple, he stuck the same knife into his heart and threw himself from the top of the church tower. The knife he was supposed to use hangs in the Sukiennice to this day, recalling this gloomy history.

On the southern wall of St. martens in which sinners were chained. You could hit them for adultery, drunkenness, avoiding a wedding, not following fasting, working on Sundays and holidays, and even petty thefts. People in martens could be insulted at will when they entered the church, so when this church punishment was abolished (only at the end of the 18th century!), Many Cracovians breathed a sigh of relief. Today, however, it is worth letting yourself be covered in martens voluntarily - apparently you can ensure happiness and constancy in love...

The church, being the main parish church, was patronized by wealthy bourgeois families, so we can find here many valuable works art and memorabilia of Krakow patricians.

However, the most important and most valuable monument of St. Mary's Church is the main altar, a masterpiece by Wit Stwosz, the greatest sculptural achievement of the late Middle Ages. Its history begins with a construction disaster: in 1442, the vault of the chancel of St Mary's Church collapsed, destroying the then altar. Then the city councilors decided to build a new one, worthy of the capital city. They chose Wit Stoss from Nuremberg as its contractor. This order brought the artist wealth, numerous clientele and immortal fame. For his work, the sculptor received 2,808 florins - the equivalent of the city's annual budget! The monumental altar was built in the years 1477-1489. Its oak structure is 13 meters high and 11 meters wide. The figures in the main scene of the Dormition of the Mother of God surrounded by the apostles are almost 3 meters long. Two movable and two fixed wings of the altar are filled with scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary and Jesus - a total of over 200 figures carved in linden blocks. In the predella (base of the altar) Stoss depicted the Tree of Jesse, that is, the genealogy of Mary and Jesus, while the altar is crowned with the coronation scene of the Virgin Mary and the figures of the patrons of Poland: St. Adalbert and St. Stanislaus. The remarkable feature of St. Mary's altar is not only its striking beauty, but also its realism. Stoss gave the figures the features of his contemporary Cracovians, recreating all the details, including the most beautiful ones - hands deformed by work and rheumatism, balding skulls, veins visible under the taut skin.

The 19th-century polychrome of the church - a work of art master Jan Matejko (his idea was, among others, a starry vault) and his students, incl. Stanisław Wyspiański and Józef Mehoffer, outstanding artists of the Young Poland movement, who also designed a stained glass window in the western wall.