Sigismund Bell

Known as the bell of kings and the king of bells, the Sigismund is the most famous and until recently the largest Polish bell. It was founded for King Sigismund the Old (Zygmunt Stary) to hang in Wawel Cathedral. The tale has it that it was cast from two cannon captured in war. Even though its clapper, called in Polish “heart”, has cracked three times so far: in 1860, at Easter 1939, and on Christmas Eve 2000, each time it had a new one cast in a foundry in no time at all, as the legend tells us that the breaking of the “heart” is a bad omen for Poland, while the popular superstition suggests that touching it brings you luck.


King Sigismund I, with his family and court, observes the hanging of the Sigismund Bell in 1521, as painted by Jan Matejko in 1874, National Museum in Warsaw