The Royal Sigismund Bell is the largest historic bell in Poland – a priceless artefact and unique symbol of Poland’s culture and history.

The most famous bell in Poland was cast in 1521 in Kraków on the orders of King Sigismund the Old by the Nuremberg master Hans Beham. He worked at a workshop near today’s Biskupi Square, and the bell was transported to Wawel along Kraków’s streets on beams by rolling them along logs as though on train tracks. It took about an hour to raise the bell to the top of the cathedral tower, with King Sigismund the Old, Queen Bona and a crowd of curious Cracovians watching the spectacle on 9 July. The bell, initially known as campana magna (it earned its founder’s name in later centuries), first resounded on 13 July 1521.

The Sigismund was the largest bell in Poland until it was succeeded by a contemporary bell in Licheń in 1999. Weighing in at close to thirteen tonnes, it’s around 250 cm tall and its circumference around the lower rim is 8 metres. The surface is covered in inscriptions, coats of arms, sketches, ornamental motifs and house marks of the maker. The top bears a Latin inscription from its founder: “To the greatest and best God, and to the Virgin Mother of God, the illustrious King Sigismund of Poland had this bell cast to be worthy of the greatness of his mind and deeds in the year of salvation 1520”.

The Sigismund was first swung by twelve strong men pulling ropes. According to mediaeval custom, cathedral bells were rung by peasants from villages belonging to the cathedral chapter. In later years, the king entrusted the function to the guild of carpenters whose members were paid a set amount to ring the Sigismund on great liturgical feasts and later other important events such as coronations, royal entries and funerals, ingresses and funerals of bishops, election and death of the Pope and even (with permission) funerals of members of the nobility. Today the role of Wawel bellringer is highly lauded, handed down the generations or from colleague to colleague. Since the 1960s, the privilege of ringing the bell has belonged to about 30 members of the Fraternity of Wawel Bellringers. Over the decades its members included many notable Cracovians, but just one woman – Barbara Szyper, art historian at the National Museum. Pope John Paul II, Honorary Bellringer of the Sigismund, wrote to Cracovian bellringers, “Ringing the Sigismund is the greatest prayer, adoring God and paying respect to Poland’s history.”

The bell tolls on the anniversary of its hanging on 9 July at 5:15pm. On the same day, Nuremberg House is joined by Polish and German partners (including Kraków House in Nuremberg) in hosting a cycle of events prepared by contemporary artists, inaugurated by a multimedia reconstruction of Jan Matejko’s painting at Wawel. The 19th-century masterpiece is the starting point for the installation prepared by Prof. Marek Chołoniewski and students at the Academy of Music in Kraków and the Department of Intermedia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. The authors aim to recreate sounds of Renaissance Kraków of the early 16th century which may have accompanied events depicted in the painting. The composition resounds at 9pm by the Sigismund Tower, accompanied by a laser projection prepared by Artur Lis and displayed on the tower façade and the castle and cathedral walls. Over the next three days (10–12 July, 10am–7pm) Wawel hosts the project Bells of Distance prepared by artists from the Acoustics Studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg. Microphones distributed over a large area collect contemporary sounds: multilingual voices, conversations, ringing of cathedral bells, traffic and other signs of Wawel life. The material will be mixed and transformed by the artists and posted on www.500-Sigismundus.com.

On the anniversary of the first tolling of the Sigismund, 13 July (5–7pm), a parade prepared by the Cracovia Danza Ballet with other Cracovian institutions and artists walks from Floriańska Gate to Wawel, following the route of the bell’s journey five hundred years ago. Events and happenings accompany the procession, including demonstrations at the Main Market Square. The pageant was prepared and directed by Romana Agnel (Cracovia Danza Ballet) and Jerzy Zoń (KTO Theatre) with Bronisław Maj. At 8pm, Wawel hosts the presentation Lighthouse – a concert by winners of the international electroacoustic music competition Etude for a Single Strike of the Bell, prepared by Prof. Marek Chołoniewski. It is followed by a laser display and a multimedia spectacle comprising five hundred minute-long audiovisual compositions and video clips made by students at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków following the concept of Prof. Grzegorz Biliński. The Sigismund Bell resounds once again later in the evening (at 9pm), echoed by other Cracovian bells.

The jubilee celebrations will be crowned with a concert To Whom the Bell Tolls. Kraków – Milan Music Dialogue held on 18 July (7:30pm) at St Catherine’s Church. Its title refers to the reign of Polish Queen Bona of the Sforza family, a symbol of cultural ties between Poland and Italy and especially between Kraków and Milan. The concert presenting music of Polish master of Renaissance and Baroque periods from the Jagiellonian court is realised thanks to the cooperation between artists from Kraków and Milan: ensembles Cracow Singers and La Risonanza under the artistic direction of Fabio Bonizzoni.

The celebration is the result of a collaboration of numerous organisers and partners, coordinated by the City of Kraków. The anniversary is also being marked in Nuremberg, the home city of Hans Beham. On 17 July the city presents laser projections, a concert and a day-long performance of the second instalment of Bells of Distance in which sounds recorded in Kraków are mixed with street sounds from Nuremberg. The sound of the Cracovian bell symbolically crosses the borders of Kraków and Poland!

Entry to all jubilee events is free!