St. Mary's Church

What makes it special

The nave is one brick hall 105 metres long, and its star and crystal vaults rest on twenty-six freestanding pillars. Look down as well as up: the floor is laid with about four hundred gravestones, with Gdańsk citizens buried beneath them.

Hans Düringer of Toruń built the astronomical clock in the 1460s. It works on three levels: a calendar, a planetarium and a theatre of figures.

The calendar dial is cut into 365 sections, one for each day of the year. The planetarium carries three hands, for the hour, the sun and the moon.

Taken out of Gdańsk in 1944, the clock kept its dials and most of its housing, and reconstruction has continued since 1987.

After the clock, give the golden altarpiece and the side chapels some time, with their sculpture and marble monuments.

Visiting

Before the clock show, come in by any of the church's seven doors and walk the nave. Adam and Eve on the clock strike every hour and quarter, but the full procession runs once a day, at three minutes to twelve: apostles file past, then Death, while Adam and Eve toll the hour.

Climb the tower after the clock; in summer it opens at ten. The ascent takes a quarter of an hour or a little more.

The first hundred and fifty or so steps are a tight spiral that runs one way only, so once you start you cannot turn back. The stair then opens into the church attic, and the last flights are steep, with a long drop beside them and no handrail in places.

Tips

Ask at the church about the free film on the basilica, shown in its multimedia room in Polish and in English or German. Seats are limited, so arrive a little early.

On a cold day the tower steps can be wet with melted ice, so wear shoes with grip. A chest-high railing rings the small platform at the top, so hold your camera above it for a clear shot.