The Stoss altar
Twelve carved years, back from Nazi looting.
Pgkos โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Unknown authorUnknown author โ Public domain ยท Rj1979 โ Public domain ยท Magen โ CC BY-SA 4.0
The dull history: built in two phases for two jobs โ the taller as the city's watchtower (hence higher), the lower for the bells. The juicy legend won: the rival brothers and the hanging knife โ and Krakow tells the second with a smile, showing the knife as proof.
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St. Mary's is Krakow's Gothic jewel: her unequal towers (the legend: two builder brothers rivalled until one killed the other โ the knife genuinely hangs in the Sukiennice) โ her interior a colour detonation: a star-blue ceiling and flowered walls Matejko and his school painted across the Gothic astonishment. Her treasure is the Veit Stoss altarpiece: the world's largest Gothic wooden altar (1489) โ twelve carving years of the Virgin's life in near-life-size figures, its wings opened daily (11:50) as an attended rite โ looted by the Nazis and returned in triumph as national symbol. Her taller tower (54 metres, 271 steps) climbs to the trumpeter's room where the hejnaล plays live above your head with the whole Rynek below โ a separate seasonal tower ticket worth its race.
Twelve carved years, back from Nazi looting.
Matejko's blue over the Gothic.
The hejnaล live above your head.
Plac Mariacki 5, 31-042 Krakow