Kraków St. Mary’s Basilica

St. Mary’s Basilica (Bazylika Mariacka, the Church of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven) is the great brick Gothic church on the north-east corner of Kraków’s Main Market Square. It is not the city’s cathedral — that is Wawel Cathedral — but it is its most famous parish church, built mainly in the 14th and early 15th centuries. Its two towers are of unequal height: from the taller one, 82 metres high, a trumpeter plays the hejnał bugle call every hour, breaking off mid-melody in memory of a medieval watchman.

Inside, the star-vaulted nave is covered in rich blue-and-gold polychromy designed by Jan Matejko, with stained glass by Stanisław Wyspiański and Józef Mehoffer. The highlight is the high altar carved by Veit Stoss in 1477–1489: about 13 metres high and 11 metres wide, it is the largest Gothic altarpiece in the world and was restored in 2015–2021. Its central panel, showing the Dormition of the Virgin, is opened every day at 11:50.

Next to the church, little Mariacki Square, a former churchyard, has a fountain with the figure of a student copied from the altar. Tourist visits are possible Monday to Saturday from 11:30 to 18:00 and on Sundays and holidays from 14:00 to 18:00; tickets (2026) cost 20 PLN, reduced 10 PLN, and are sold on the day at the visitors’ desk at Mariacki Square 7. From May to October you can also climb the bugle tower (20 PLN).