Added Polish

THE trumpet-call lasted only a few notes and ended abruptly. High above my head, in the pinnacled tower of St Mary's Church, in Krakow, a

tiny figure appeared at a window and the oddly truncated call rang out again.

It sounded as if the trumpeter had forgotten the rest of the tune.

But Andrezj, my guide, explained. In 1241, a watchman in the tower caught sight of a band of invading Tartars and sounded the alarm on his bugle.

He had only got as far as

the first few notes when an

arrow struck him in the throat.

But the signal was heard and Krakow gained enough time to defend itself.

Every hour, on the hour, a trumpeter now sounds the same, sadly brief fanfare. At midday, it is broadcast throughout the nation, a reminder of Poland's courage and independence.

''It has only been late once,'' Andrezj told me. ''That was when your Queen visited us in March, 1996, and found herself running behind time. The trumpeter waited for her to arrive before playing.''

Inside the sixteenth-century church, on the corner of Krakow's splendid Rynek Square, another ceremony was being performed.

At noon, a nun carrying a long hooked pole advances to the monumental triptych which took Veit Stoss, the world's greatest wood-carver, 12 years to create.

Slowly, she opens the two sides and - a thrilling burst of music from the organ - reveals the stupendous 40ft-high central panel; an explosion of gold showing six scenes from the life of the Holy Family, surrounded by a thirteenth-century pageant of citizens, knights, vagabonds, merchants, students and playing children.

So detailed is the carving that, when it was first revealed, the

congregation excitedly identified individual friends and neighbours.

All that would be enough for any normal city.

But Krakow - the original Polish capital, founded in 1040 by Casimir the Great - is one vast museum exhibit embracing 3500 historic monuments. It has been nominated European City of Culture for millennium year 2000.

Lying at the foot of Wawel Hill and brushed by the River Vistula, Krakow totally escaped damaged in the Second World War. Take in the view from Debricki Bridge and you'll swear you have stepped back five centuries.

But there's nothing reverential about it. Lively crowds swirl and eddy round Rynek, 700ft long and the third biggest square in Europe after St Mark's in Venice, and St Peter's in Rome.

At any moment, you are liable to be swept up in an impromptu party, a piece of street theatre, a religious celebration or a country wedding, with musicians in traditional dress playing jaunty folk melodies.

I rounded one corner to be confronted by an oncoming horde of chanting football fans, waving the red-and-white banners of the local Wisla team. Anywhere else and I would have taken to my heels. But the crowd parted as they reached me and flowed in a good-natured tide on either side. It said a lot about Polish courtesy.

Cafe life on Rynek Square is a world in itself.

Lenin once sipped coffee

outside one of the Renaissance palaces and plotted the downfall of capitalism. At the Cafe Michalikowa, waitresses in long dresses serve humungous peach melbas against a stunning art noveau background. The Vis-a-Vis Cafe - where they make an apple juice and vodka cocktail nicknamed ''Bramley Mary'' - is enlivened by the antics of a zany cabaret group. And the decor of the Wierzynek, which dates back to 1364, is more like a cathedral than a coffee-house. Here, you can sample authentic Polish cuisine for around #30 for two.

Right in the centre of Rynek, like a jewel box set in a sea of cobbles, is the arcaded Cloth Hall, built in 1555 to replace a jumble of stalls.

It is now a crowded market-place full of booths selling painted pine boxes, wooden plates, candlesticks, rugs, dolls and

glassware. Shopaholics enter at their peril.

All Poland's kings - starting with the vertically challenged Wladyslaw the Short - are entombed in the Royal Cathedral, encircled by the walls of the

castle on Wawel Hill, like the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey rolled into one.

Spread below are 150 churches and 30 museums. some with the oddest exhibits. You'll find a whole encampment of Turkish tents - all fantastically elaborate - captured at the siege of Vienna in 1683; the reconstructed laboratory of a medieval sorcerer, straight out of Dr Frankestein; the first globe showing the continent of America and Da Vinci's masterpiece, Lady with an Ermine, described in the catalogue as ''Lady with a Weasel.'' Not quite the same thing.

I walked down through the Planty, the ''green belt'' of parkland which encircles the old

town, past the cheerily painted house where cosmetics queen Helena Rubinstein was born and entered a street of ghosts.

The Kazimierz ghetto which once housed 65,000 Jews, was used by Stephen Spielberg as a location for Schindler's List. Many of the real-life events happened here and although the ghetto was never destroyed, only 150 Jews still remain.

The fate of the others is hinted at, almost too commercially for my liking, by posters in the

windows of nearly all the nearby travel agents: ''Auschwitz excursion, half-day #16.''

It is the crowds of young people - Krakow University was founded in 1364 - who bring life, love and laughter to the city.

In Rynek Square they perform as street entertainers to earn a few zloty. At night they pack into some of the best discos in Poland, like O Grodek and Club Pasja. Their amateur paintings turn the medieval walls around Florian's Gate into an open-air gallery. And their irreverent humour ensures that Mleczki's ''cartoon shop'' on Jana Street - which sells the rudest prints, T-shirts, and souvenirs you've ever blushed at - will never go out of business.

All thanks to that single trumpet call 750 years ago.

n Travelscene 0181 427 8800 offers three nights at Krakow from #339, including breakfast and airport transfers. Other operators include Thomson (0171 200 8900) British Airways (01293 723100), Cresta (0161 927 7000) and Fregata (0171 451 7000). Polish tourist office 0171 580 8811.