In Krakow, which was the ancient capital of Poland, there is a Church in the Market Square. It is a tall, graceful building built of brick, in the Gothic style, with a richly adorned interior. It has two towers, one of which is a little higher than the other and more ornate. From the taller tower a fanfare, called hejnał, is played by a trumpeter on every hour. It is repeated four times, in four different directions, but always ends abruptly, on a broken note. Here is the legend behind this tradition:
One day in the 13th century, an old watchman, keeping watch over the city saw in the distance a cloud of dust which grew bigger with every passing moment. He realized, in horror, that it was a large army of Tatars galloping towards the city walls. These invaders from the East had more than once advanced to Kraków and even farther, and they had pillaged and burned, looted and murdered and carried off the people to be slaves. The trumpeter was horror stricken. How could he warn the city, how could he convey to the people the approach of danger and give them time to prepare their defense? There was only one thing he could do. To go down into the town and spread the alarm would be foolish, for it would waste precious minutes. He must play the Hejnał, over and over. That would surely arouse the citizens, they would certainly be aware of approaching danger. So he played, again and again.
At first the people of Kraków were puzzled. Why was the trumpeter playing over and over? and with such loud urgency? But they quickly realized that it was a warning and that from his lofty tower ha had seen danger approach. The soldiers sprang to arms and took up their stations on the walls of the city. The burgesses ran to secure their houses and place their wives and children behind locked doors. The apprentices seized their arrows and their cross-bows, the artisans seizes what tools they could lay their hands on, and they all marched to the defense of their city.
The archers took up their positions along the battlements as the tartars galloped towards the city. But by now the Polish arrows were flying. They rained down on the tartar invaders, wave after wave. Eventually the Tartars were forced to retreat, and Kraków was saved from the Mongols! Suddenly, the sound of the Hejnał ceased abruptly. The notes had reached the ears of the Tatars as they approached, and their keen eyes had espied the figure of the trumpeter. As soon as they came within bow-shot, their leader, the surest marksman of them all, loosed his bow, and the deadly projectile logged in the trumpeter’s throat.
When the joy over the victory died down they realized that the trumpeter who had warned them was nowhere to be seen. So one of his friends went to look for him. However, when he reached the tower he found that disaster had struck. A single Tartar arrow had pierced the old watchman’ s throat and he had died. The trumpet was still clasped in his hands ready to blast out a final note.
The Krakowians would never forget the act of the old trumpeter watchman, and it was decreed that a bugle call should be played each day in memory of the hero.
And so for hundreds of years the ‘hejnał’ has rung out over Kraków’s rooftops for the noble watchman who saved the city.
Till next time…!Do następnego razu…!
