Wawel Royal Castle
Wawel 5
Kraków

Tags: Kraków

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Wawel Royal Castle

First, the Wawel is a hill in Cracow, on the left bank of the Vistula River, south of the city. Second, Wawel is mainly associated with historical buildings, with particular attention to the Cathedral and the Royal Castle. Despite the fact that Wawel is no longer the official residence of the rulers of the Republic since almost 400 years ago, there is still a special place that combines culturally and socially and where all Poles feel history.
Every day, thousands of tourists visit the Wawel Castle. They wish to see for yourself one of the most important centers of Polish culture and history.
In the castle are available for visitors: State Rooms - exhibition comprises floor rooms of the castle chambers on the ground. On the second floor, including Hall of Deputies, where ceiling is decorated with carved heads and the Senators' Hall, private royal apartments, the treasury of the Crown, which is presented including Szczerbiec coronation sword, armory and Oriental Art exhibition.
In the cathedral you can see royal tombs, the National Bards Crypt and Zygmunt Bell, which beats only during the most important Polish events.
It is also worth getting in the Cathedral Museum and its collections.
In addition, on a hill of The Lost Wawel there is archaeological reserve with partially reconstructed Rotunda of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Attractive place for tourists is also a Dragon's Den and a very impressive Royal Gardens.

Wawel

it is a Jurassic limestone rock, having a dominant feature in the landscape of Cracow (about 228 m above see level). It was formed about 150 million years ago. Situated on the bank of the Vistula river, surrounded by waters and marshes, the hill provided a safe for people, who have been settled here since the Paleolithic Age. It is supposed that the Slav people started living on Wawel hill as early as the 7th century.

Towards the end of the first millennium A.D Wawel began to play the role of the centre of political power.

In the ninth century it became the principal fortified place of the Vislane tribe. The first historical ruler of Poland, Mieszko I (c.965-992) of the Piast dynasty as well as his successors: Boleslaw the Brave  (992-1025) and Mieszko II (1025-1034) have chosen Wawel Hill as a place for one of their residences.

At that time Wawel became one of the main Polish centers of Christianity. The first early Romanesque and Romanesque sacral buildings were raised here, including a stone cathedral that was erected in 1000.

During the reign of Casimir the Restorer (1034-1058) Wawel became a significant political and administrative centre for the Polish State.

In 1306 years the prince of Kuyavia Ladislaus the Short (1306-1333) entered the Wawel. Here in the cathedral of Krakow in 1320 held his coronation. It is worth noting that it was first historically recorded coronation of Polish ruler on Wawel Hill. During this time, the king began to build third Gothic cathedral here. Then the castle was expanded, wood-earth fortification replaced brick. After Short's death, his body was laid in the cathedral. This tomb was initiated necropolis custom of burial in this place Polish kings and rulers. President Lech Kaczynski, the last President of Poland and his wife, who died tragically in a plane crash near Smolensk have their tomb there as well.
The last of the Piast dynasty, Casimir the Great (1333-1370) led to the incredible splendor Wawel.
Without taking the importance of other buildings, Wawel Royal Castle is unquestionably the most important building here.
The next splendor period of the Castle assigned to Jadwiga Angevin from the family of the Hungarian, and her marriage to a Lithuanian prince Wladyslaw Jagiello (1386-1434). Then at the royal court employed local and western artists, including painters from Rus. Then, during the reign of Casimir Jagielonczyk (1447-1492) the silhouette of the hill was enriched by among others high brick tower. At the court of this king acted first in Poland humanists and teachers of his sons: historian Jan Dlugosz and Italian Filip Callimachus.
The Italian renaissance appeared in Wawel in the early sixteenth century. King Alexander (1501-1506) and his brother Sigismund I the Old (1506-1548) erected on the site of a Gothic mansion new palace, completed about 1540. Artistic Patronage of Zygmunt also marked permanently in the cathedral, the ancestral chapel hill, called. Sigismund today, the work of Florence Bartholomew Berrecci and lots of foundations, including great bell named after the king Sigismund. In the "Golden Age" in Polish culture Wawel became one of the main centers of humanism in Europe. Sigismund III Vasa (1587-1632) also had its contribution on the desigh of the Castle. After the fire of the castle in 1595 the king renewed the burned wing of the building in the early Baroque style. And in this point the role of the Castle begins to wane. Royal court was moved to Warsaw. This caused a slow deterioration in the condition of the castle. Monarchs appeared only occasionally in Krakow. The castle in Wawel remained, however, the coronation and burial place of kings.
When Poland lost its independence in 1795, the occupation troops from Russia, Prussia and Austria occupied the Castle Wawel. Finally, it found itself in the hands of the Austrians. New hosts introduced their own changes and adapted part of the castle and other buildings for the military hospital, and some buildings, including churches, were demolished.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the Cathedral was refurbished thoroughly, and later began a long, lasting several decades, maintenance of the royal castle.
After 1918, in restoration Poland, the castle served as the representative residence of head of state and a museum of historic interiors. During World War II, in the Castle lived Nazi General Hans Frank. Valuable exhibits Poles managed to secure and exported to Canada. From the American continent they returned to the country only in 1959-1961. At present, the main curators of Wawel are Wawel Royal Castle – National Art Collection and the Metropolitan Basilica Board on Wawel Hill.

All expositions in the castle are closed:

• 1 January
• Easter - Saturday and Sunday
• 1 and 11 November
• 24, 25 December
• Note - in the winter season (November 1-March 31) on Mondays, all exhibitions in the Castle are closed.