St. Mary's Trumpet Call or Hejnal is a traditional, five-note Polish bugle call closely bound to the history and traditions of Kraków. It is played every hour on the hour, four times in succession in each of the four cardinal directions, by a trumpeter on the highest tower of the city's Saint Mary's Basilica.


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Trumpet calls were used in many European cities to signal the opening and closing of city gates at dawn and dusk. The four directions in which the St. Mary's Trumpet Call is currently sounded, correspond roughly to the four main Kraków gates before 3 out of 4 of the gates were demolished in the 19th century.

Hejnał player in Kraków.

The tumpeter of Krakow. The mouth of the trumpet can be seen peeking out of the top window of the tower at St Mary's Basilica. Credit: 360onhistory.com

According to a popular 20th-century legend, during a Mongol invasion of Poland (the invasion usually cited is that of 1241), Mongol troops led by General Subutai approached Kraków. A sentry on a tower of St Mary's Church sounded the alarm by playing the Hejnał, and the city gates were closed before the Tatars could ambush the city. The trumpeter, however, was shot in the throat by an arrow and did not complete the anthem, and this is the legendary reason as to why performances end abruptly before completion.
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