St. Mary's Basilica, Kraków
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St. Mary's Basilica, standing 80m (262ft) tall, is a Brick Gothic church built in the 14th century, adjacent to the main market square in Kraków, Poland. It is particularly famous for its wooden altarpiece carved by Veit Stoss.
On every hour, a trumpet signal - called the hejnał (pronounced hey-now) - is played from the top of the taller of St. Mary's two towers. The plaintive tune breaks off in mid-stream, to commemorate the famous 13th century trumpeter, who was shot in the throat while sounding the alarm before the Mongol attack on the city. The noon-time hejnał is heard across Poland and abroad broadcast live by the Polish national Radio 1 Station.
St. Mary's Basilica also served as an architectural model for many of the churches that were built by the Polish diaspora abroad, particularly those like St. Michael's and St. John Cantius in Chicago, designed in the so-called Polish Cathedral style.
The church is familiar to many English-speaking readers from the 1929 book The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Krakow: everything about St. Mary's Church
- The Hejnał from St. Mary's Church in Mp3 format
- Kosciol Mariacki - the basilica of the Virgin Mary in Krakow
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