Wawel Royal Castle
Renaissance royal residence on Wawel Hill, seat of Polish kings and a national museum.
Wawel Hill has been fortified since the early Middle Ages, and a Gothic castle was raised here under Casimir III in the fourteenth century. After a fire in 1499 Sigismund I rebuilt the residence as a Renaissance palace, employing the Italian architects Francesco Florentino and Bartolomeo Berrecci; the arcaded courtyard they created, three storeys of slender columns around a square, remains the best known Renaissance interior court north of the Alps. The court moved to Warsaw in 1596, and the castle later served as an Austrian barracks.
Restored from 1905 onwards, Wawel is now a state art collection and museum. Visitor routes are ticketed separately and include the State Rooms, the Royal Private Apartments, the Crown Treasury and Armoury, the Ottoman Turkish tents captured at Vienna, the archaeological displays of the Lost Wawel beneath the courtyard, the Royal Gardens and the Dragon's Den cave in the hillside. Wawel Cathedral, the coronation and burial church of Polish monarchs, stands alongside under separate management.
Highlights
- Arcaded Renaissance courtyard by Berrecci and Florentino
- Crown Treasury and Armoury with royal regalia and weapons
- Ottoman Turkish tents taken at the relief of Vienna
- Lost Wawel archaeological route beneath the courtyard
![Afrique occidentale française : Cathédrale à St Louis / [photogr. Eugène] Gallois ; [photogr. reprod. par Radiguet et Massiot pour la conférence donnée par] Gallois](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Afrique_occidentale_fran%C3%A7aise_-_Cath%C3%A9drale_%C3%A0_St_Louis_-_%28photogr._Eug%C3%A8ne%29_Gallois_%3B_%28photogr._reprod._par_Radiguet_et_Massiot_pour_la_conf%C3%A9rence_donn%C3%A9e_par%29_Gallois_-_btv1b532798828.jpg/500px-thumbnail.jpg)
![[Golestan, Le Salon et Fete de l'equinode, Teheran, Iran (le Pavillion du Trone)]](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/-Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg/500px--Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg)
![Théâtre de la guerre dans l'Inde sur la coste de Coromandel / par M.B.C.T. [Monsieur Bourcet Capitaine ?] ; gravé par Croisey](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg/500px-Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg)
