St Mary's: the broken-off bugle call

On the hour, a trumpet melody drifts down from the top of the taller tower. It's played four times, once towards each point of the compass: towards Wawel, towards the town hall, towards the Barbican and towards the Mały Rynek. And it always breaks off in the middle of a note.

1The Tatar arrow

According to legend, in 1241, as the Mongols attacked Kraków, a watchman saw the enemy coming and sounded the alarm. An arrow pierced his throat before he could finish, and ever since the tune has stopped short in his honour. The invasion of 1241 was real and devastated the city; the arrow, however, appears in no medieval source. The story was first published in 1928 in an American children's novel, Eric P. Kelly's 'The Trumpeter of Krakow', and according to Polish Wikipedia it was a Kraków woman, Aniela Pruszyńska, who told it to him over dinner.

What the records show is different: city accounts from 1392 already pay a trumpeter on this tower, which served as the city's watchtower. Since 1927 Polish Radio has broadcast the hejnał every day at noon, and today it is played by Kraków firefighters.

2The two towers

Tradition says two brothers built them. Seeing that his brother's tower would be taller, the younger one stabbed him with a knife and then, overcome with remorse, threw himself from the top. In fact, they differ because they had different jobs: the tall one, about 80 metres, was the city's watchtower and got its spire in 1478; the lower one, about 69 metres, is the bell tower.

The invasion was real; the wounded trumpeter is a 20th-century story.

3What to look for

• The golden crown on top of the tall tower, put up in 1666.
• The trumpeter's window: he waves to the crowd when he finishes.
• The difference between the towers: Gothic spire versus Renaissance dome.