St. Mary's Basilica, also known as St. Mary's Church with two towers, is the pride of Krakow rising on the Main Square with its 800-year history.

The interior of this Gothic temple surprises with its colorful and rich decorations, completely unusual for buildings from the period, mainly thanks to the nineteenth-century polychromy of master Jan Matejko. The main attraction of St. Mary's Basilica is the late Gothic Main Altar by Wit Stwosz, depicting scenes from the life of Mary and Jesus, headed by the patronal scene of the Assumption of Mary and the most famous - the Dormition of Mary.

The architectural peculiarity of the church is due to the fact that the height of the church is uneven. A bugle-call is played from the higher 82 m, called the Hejnalica, and from the lower 69 m, a church bell called the HalfZygmunt is hung. No plans have been preserved to explain the different height of the towers. However, there is a legend about two brothers, famous bricklayers, who started building at the end of the 13th century. When the older brother realized that his tower was much taller, not wanting to be overtaken, he murdered his brother. However, his remorse didn't leave him alone, so he stuck a knife in his heart and then threw himself from the top of the tower.

This knife, bloody with fraternal blood, still hangs today, chained in a chain in the Cloth Hall. St. Mary's bugle-call resounds four times every hour in different directions. Not without reason. Each of the directions has its own meaning: the south is a tribute to the king, the west to the mayor, the north to the guests, and the east once to the merchants, and now to the commander of the guard.

Since 1927, the bugle-call has also been played at noon on Programme I of the Polish Radio, thanks to which it can be heard not only by the inhabitants of Krakow, but also by people from all over Poland and other countries. It is also one of the symbols of Krakow and an important part of the city's history. At some point the bugle-call stops. Why is this happening? One of the most famous legends tells about it. One of them tells the story of the Tatar invasion (most likely the one from 1241) and the guard who alerted the city. As soon as the trumpeter on the tower saw the enemy's troops approaching, he immediately started playing the bugle call. Thanks to this, the Cracovians, unaware of anything, managed to close the gates and prepare to defend themselves. When the Tartars understood who had warned the inhabitants, they released a rain shot at the tower. One of them pierced the guard's throat, and the bugle call he was playing broke in the middle of the tone. To commemorate this event, the tune from the Marian bugle-call is never played to the end.

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