St Mary’s Basilica, Krakow

St Mary's Basilica, Krakow tickets: which one to buy

There are two doors and two rules. The door from the square facing the Cloth Hall is for prayer and is free; the side door is for sightseeing and charges a small ticket, sold in the house opposite. A separate cheap ticket lets you climb the taller tower, the one the trumpeter plays from, in groups every half hour during the warmer months. A photography permit costs extra. The combined ticket for church and tower is the sensible buy.

Guided walking tours of the Old Town usually include the basilica entry and cost several times the ticket price; they are useful because the altarpiece is dense with narrative and the church has no signage to speak of. Tours pairing the basilica with the Rynek Underground museum below the square are a good half day. Nothing here needs booking far ahead except the tower in July and August, and the queue for the church rarely exceeds a few minutes.

Visiting St Mary's Basilica, Krakow: what to see

The brick Gothic church was built on thirteenth-century foundations and finished in the fourteenth, and its two unequal towers are a Krakow signature. Inside, the walls are painted in deep blue and gold to a design by Jan Matejko, and the light through the medieval glass in the chancel is worth the visit alone. The reason to come, though, stands behind the high altar: the altarpiece carved by Veit Stoss between 1477 and 1489, thirteen metres high, with the Dormition of the Virgin at its centre and figures cut from limewood at more than life size, the faces reportedly modelled on Krakow townspeople.

The wings are opened ceremonially at noon each day. On every hour, from the top of the taller tower, a trumpeter plays the Hejnal, breaking off mid-phrase in memory of a watchman said to have been shot in the throat while sounding the alarm; the noon call is broadcast live across Poland. The trumpeter waves from the window afterwards.

St Mary's Basilica, Krakow opening hours and the best time to go

Tourist entry runs from late morning to early evening on weekdays, with a later start on Sundays, and the church closes to visitors during services. Arrive shortly before noon to see the altarpiece opened, then step outside for the hejnal; that ten-minute sequence is the best of the day. The tower climb is 239 wooden steps in a narrow shaft, closed in winter and in bad weather, and the view over the Main Square is the finest in the city.

Krakow's Old Town is busiest from late morning to evening all summer; the church at nine or after six is calm. Dress modestly, and note that the prayer section at the back is separated by a rail and free to enter if you only want to look. Photography needs the permit, and flash is banned. Allow forty minutes for the church, an hour with the tower. The Cloth Hall opposite closes later than the church, and the underground museum beneath the square runs until the evening.