St. Mary’s Basilica Towers

The Excubiarum Watchtower and Bugle Call Tower of the St. Mary's Church towers are other names for the 82 m higher north tower. It has a square layout but morphs into an octagon at the ninth level height, with two stories of windows and pointed arch recesses. Stone ledges divide the various storeys of the entire tower. A Gothic dome from 1478, created by master Maciej Heringk, tops the tower. A ring of eight lesser steeples surrounds the octagonal pointed steeple that forms the cupola. St. Mary's Bugle Call is sounded from a height of 54 m every hour.

The bells of St. Mary are housed in the 69-meter-tall south tower of the St. Mary's Church towers, which serves as the bell tower. Its square construction and distinct level divisions with windows and ledges make it similar to the larger tower in height. The Renaissance chapel of the Convert of St. Paul is located on the bell level and is accessed through a Renaissance balcony constructed by Italian artisans from the Bartolommeo Berrecci shop. The bell, which was made in 1736 by Kacper Koerber of Wroclaw, hangs outside over the chapel window and beneath the three-hipped roof.

According to legend surrounding the St. Mary's Church towers, two brothers were employed to construct St. Mary's towers. The brothers were regarded as two of Kraków's top construction workers. The initial stages of construction progressed according to schedule and at comparable speeds. However, it quickly became apparent that the elder brother's south tower was obviously taller than his brother's north tower. The unfinished south tower was to be capped with a cupola when the younger brother killed his elder brother in a jealous frenzy. Then, according to his design, he finished building his now-taller north tower.

The younger brother, however, was overcome by remorse. He ascended to the top of his tower on the day of consecration while carrying the knife he had used to murder his brother. He leapt after openly admitting to the murder.To this day, the murderer's knife remains at the Cloth Hall gate in the Main Square to serve as a constant reminder of these horrible events.

The higher tower of the St. Mary’s Basilica towers, which functioned as the city's watchtower throughout the medieval times, was where the bugle call was played. It gave notice of the closing or opening of Kraków's gates as well as, more importantly, fire outbreaks or enemy assaults.The call ends abruptly. According to history of history of St mary's basilica , a guard was posted in St. Mary’s Basilica Krakow towers night and day to ensure the security of the residents during Poland's 12th-century Tatar invasion. He began to play the call to alert the unwary inhabitants of the imminent peril as soon as he saw the approaching Tatars. He was hit in the throat by a Tatar arrow while he was playing.