Architecture Around the World .................Poland - Table of Contents
Church of St. Mary (Kosciol Mariacki)
AKA The Church of the Assumption of
the Virgin Mary
pl. Mariacki, adjacent to the Main Market Square
in Cracow (Kraków) Poland
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Church built: |
1355- early 16th century |
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Exterior style: |
Primarily Gothic |
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Interior styles: |
Gothic to 19th-century
Gothic Revival Baroque to Liberty (Italian Art Nouveau) |
TEXT beneath illustrations
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15th century asymmetrical towers |
1478 Hejnal Tower. See text below. |
Renaissance style dome finished in 16th century |
Hand made bricks |
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Baroque pentagonal porch built in mid-18th century to a design by Fracesco Placidi |
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Stained glass window detail |
Trefoil and cinquefoil shapes in stained glass window tracery |
Art Nouveau style |
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Gothic style niche and statue |
Choir seating in chancel |
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Art Nouveau style wall painting ... Gothic ribbed ceiling |
The church was built on the site of a Romanesque church founded at the beginning of the 13th century.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.Upper tower
The Hejnal Tower was completed in 1478. The golden crown, symbol of the Virgin Mary as Queen of Poland, was added 1666.
The tower has served as a watchtower since the Middle Ages. In the past the guards would raise the alarm in the case of fire or of enemy attack.
Today the firemen on duty must be vigilant in the prevention of fire but have also to play on the hour a musical phrase "hejnal mariacki." Since "hejnal" is a word of Hungarian origin meaning "morning," the phrase might then be interpreted as "awake," a sort of military reveille to wake the town, a theory reinforced by the sprightly tune.
Today it is not only heard in the morning but divides the day: every hour a trumpeter sounds the hejnal to the points of the compass and at midday, Radio I Poland broadcasts the tune throughout Poland. Radio equipment was first installed in the tower in 1926. The sound of this tune, echoing as it has done for years among the old city walls around the church gives the old quarter a character that is quite unique.
Interior
The decoration of the church interior, its paintings and stained glass windows are in a range of styles: from the Gothic to 19th-century Gothic Revival, from the Baroque to Liberty (Italian Art Nouveau).
