Holy Virgin. This charming roof arrangement undeniably owes its origin both to the fortress architecture of the Middle Ages, and to the native wooden architecture. The man who planned
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24. SPIRE OF ST. MARY'S.
the construction that produces such a picturesque and fascinating impression, must have been an artist of extraordinary talent. The "Tower of the Silver Chimes," on the Wawel, served for model; the date of the erection is probably 1478—just the time when Vitus Stoss was here at work on the high altar; this would seem to make it probable that he had himself a part in the plan for St. Mary's tower.
The tower clock, with its twelve figures, has long disappeared; but there is the medieval custom preserved that the warder of the tower, after the completion of each hour, sounds on a trumpet a certain traditional air, called Heynal by the people.
Popular tradition has attached a legendary story to the building of the two towers of St. Mary's. According to this the two builders were brothers, and one of them, seeing that the other's tower was going to grow higher than his own, killed him with a knife, which is hanging to the present day at the eastern door of Drapers' Hall (Sukiennice). This is said to account for the one tower having remained unfinished.
