The plaintive tune breaks off in mid-stream, to commemorate a famous 13th century trumpeter who was shot in the throat while sounding the alarm before a Mongol attack on the city.

[3] The church was completely rebuilt during the reign of Casimir III the Great between 1355 and 1365 with substantial contributions from wealthy restaurateur Mikołaj Wierzynek.

At the end of the 15th century, Saint Mary's church was enriched with a sculptural masterpiece, an Altarpiece of Veit Stoss (Ołtarz Mariacki Wita Stwosza) of late Gothic design.

All 26 altars, equipment, furniture, benches and paintings were replaced and the walls were decorated with polychrome, the work of Andrzej Radwański.

[3] In the years immediately before 1730 the Venetian painter Giambattista Pittoni painted five altarpieces for the side altars of the central nave: The Annunciation, The Adoration of the Magi, Madonna and Child with St. Philip Neri, Mary Magdalene, St.

The temple gained a new design and murals painted and funded by Jan Matejko, who worked with Stanisław Wyspiański and Józef Mehoffer - the authors of stained glass in the presbytery.

[citation needed] On 18 April 2010, in Saint Mary's Basilica, a funeral ceremony for Polish president Lech Kaczyński and his wife Maria was held.