thumb|200px|Closeup of the Sigismund Bell.

The Sigismund Bell ( or colloquially ) is the largest of the five bells hanging in the Sigismund Tower of the Wawel Cathedral in the city of Kraków, Poland. It was cast in 1520 by Hans Beham and named after King Sigismund I the Old, who commissioned it. The bell weighs almost 13 tonnes (28 thousand pounds) and requires 12 bell-ringers to manually swing it. It tolls on special occasions, mostly religious and national holidays, and is regarded as one of Poland's national symbols.

Description

The body of the Sigismund Bell is cast in bronze and weighs 9,650 kg. Its diameter at the lip is 242 cm and its height is 241 cm. The wall of the body is from 7 to 21 cm thick. The crown of the bell is attached to a yoke made of oak wood and measuring 308 cm in length and 219 cm in height. Within the bell, suspended on a leather belt of up to 12 layers, attached to an iron supporting structure, is a Gothic clapper, weighing – together with the belt – 365 kg. The bell was installed in the Sigismund Tower and rung for the first time on 13 July 1521. It also tolled during funerals or reburials of several great Poles, such as Adam Mickiewicz (1900), Marshal Józef Piłsudski (1935), General Władysław Sikorski (1993), Pope John Paul II (2005), It rang defiantly on Polish national holidays in the times of partitions (1795–1918) After the death of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in 1953, Poland's communist authorities demanded that the bell be rung as a sign of mourning. When the cathedral's bell-ringers refused, soldiers were ordered to ring the bell instead, When Wyspiański was caught, the bishop wished him that Sigismund ring at his funeral – which actually happened in 1907. rings in important moments for Krakow and Poland, in recent years, among others:

  • March 25, 2020 - during prayer for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic
  • July 13, 2021 - on the occasion of his own 500th anniversary, Zygmunt called twice: around 5:15 p.m. and at 9:00 p.m.
  • September 2, 2021 - after the death of the rector of the Wawel Cathedral, Fr. Zdzisław Sochacki.
  • March 6, 2022 - the bell rang in support for the fighting Ukraine, attacked on February 24, 2022 by Russia
  • December 31, 2022 - after the death of Benedict XVI
  • January 5, 2023 - during the funeral of Benedict XVI in the Vatican

The task requires strength, coordination and caution. While swinging, the bell often pulls the ringers up from the floor; in the interwar period, one ringer was accidentally killed when the bell pushed him out of a window.