Facebook link
You are here:
Back

Zamek Królewski na Wawelu Kraków

Wawel Royal Castle Kraków

Wzgórze Wawelskie z lotu ptaka. Na pierwszym planie mury obronne wijące się zygzakami wokół alejki. Po prawej za alejką i drzewami długi, trzykondygnacyjny budynek, na końcu którego stoi kwadratowa, wysoka wieża. Za nimi wewnątrz drzewa, alejki i spacerujący ludzie. Po lewej za alejką wysoka, kwadratowa wieża od której dalej ciągnie się mur i zabudowania, za którymi górują trzy wieże różnej wysokości i z różnymi kopułami. Po prawej od nich łamany budynek za którym widać dachy i kwadratową, wysoką wieżę. Pod murami wokół rosną drzewa i trawa a naokoło rozciąga się panorama Krakowa.

Wawel 5, 31-001 Kraków Tourist region: Kraków i okolice

tel. +48 124225155
tel. +48 124225155
It is one of Europe’s most famous historic buildings, and one of the two largest and most important castles in Poland.
The courtyard of the Royal Castle, which impresses with the grandeur, but also the lightness of its slender arcades, as well as “the pearl of Tuscan Renaissance north of the Alps”, i.e. the Sigismund’s Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral, were both raised in the 16th century by Italians, brought from Tuscany by King Sigismund I of Poland. Thanks to the architect and stone mason Bartolomeo Berrecci from Florence, both the chapel and the castle’s arcaded cloisters became the repeatedly copied, yet unrivalled patterns of Renaissance buildings on Polish lands. The Royal Castle and the Wawel Cathedral are perched on a limestone hill overlooking a bend of the Vistula river. Fortified by nature, the place was subsequently developed and surrounded by powerful fortifications. The pre-Romanesque Rotunda of St. Felix and Adauctus is the evidence of its ancient history. For a few centuries, the Wawel Castle was the seat of rulers from the Piast and Jagiellon dynasties, as well as the first elective kings. Although King Sigismund III Vasa and his court moved to Warsaw at the end of the 16th century, the importance of Wawel did not diminish. The Wawel Cathedral remained the site of coronation ceremonies and burials of most of the subsequent Polish Kings. Before entering Wawel, visitors pass mighty fortifications surrounding the hill. They were built by the Austrians in the 19th century. However, even older walls with the Thieves’ Tower, Sandomierz Tower and Senator’s Tower still stand. From the arcaded courtyard, you can enter the magnificent chambers to admire, among other things, the famous Flemish tapestries and the ceiling decorated with the “Wawel Heads”. The castle adjoins a Gothic cathedral surrounded by a corona of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque chapels. The most beautiful among them is the already mentioned Sigismund’s Chapel. The cathedral and the underground crypts hold the tombs of not only Polish kings, but also national poets and heroes such as Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki, Tadeusz Kościuszko and Józef Piłsudski. Visitors can climb on of the cathedral’s towers in order to have a close look at the famous Royal Sigismund Bell, which is rung only on very significant national occasions. 

Related Assets