St Mary's Basilica


The lop-sided glory of St. Mary's is one of the most photographed sites in all Cracow. According to legend, two brothers built the towers, and one brother deliberately built higher in a bid for greater glory. When the tricked sibling returned to town and discovered the betrayal, he did away with his brother in a fit of rage (the grisly knife still hangs in the Cloth Hall). After that lovely story, we should add that St. Mary's gained most of her present form following the Tatar raid of the mid-thirteenth century. The church was to be a proud symbol of the merchants' prestige. The jewel in the crown came many years later with Veit Stoss's altar-piece - still in situ - which contains some two hundred sculpted figures. Legends abound with this building. Besides the embittered brothers, the northern tower is the home of the Hejnal trumpet call.

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St Mary's Basilica