Description
Wawel Royal Castle - a historic defensive and residential castle in Krakow, on Wawel Hill. It is the seat of the National Art Collections - Wawel Royal Castle, a museum with an area of 7,040 m² with 71 exhibition rooms. History The castle has been expanded and renovated many times over the centuries. Numerous fires, looting and marches of foreign troops, combined with the destruction of the residence, caused the building to be rebuilt many times in new architectural styles and its external appearance was renovated, as well as the appearance and interior furnishings were transformed and changed. 11th - 13th centuries In the castle, archaeological excavations revealed the existence of a large number of brick buildings, including residential ones, as early as the 11th century. This function could have been performed by the so-called a room with 24 pillars, which is called the palatium. A larger defensive castle was built at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries in the north-eastern corner of the hill. This was the result of moving the capital of Poland to Krakow. The residence, built in the Romanesque style, consisted of at least a quadrangular defensive tower at Kurzeja Stopka and a residential building. In addition, there were numerous religious buildings nearby. To the east of the gorge that divided the hill at that time, Wawel was surrounded by a ring of walls and further structures were added. This complex was called the upper castle. To the west of the gorge there was the so-called the lower castle, which was a settlement near the castle. In its embankment, built after 1016, a brick pre-Romanesque gatehouse was built in the area of Smocza Jama. The second brick entry gate - dating back to the years after 1016 or after the invasion of Brzetysław in 1036 - was built in the area of the Senators' Tower. In the first half of the 12th century, a brick defensive tower built on a square plan was incorporated into the line of fortifications on the eastern edge of the Wawel Hill, known from the moment of its discovery as the so-called Romanesque carp. In the same period, a second brick tower in a cylindrical form was incorporated into the system of embankments on the eastern side, in the immediate vicinity of the older brick gate neck. According to Jan Długosz's description, the Wawel Castle and Okół defended themselves against the Tatar siege in 1241. Okay. In 1265, Bolesław the Chaste made a major reconstruction of the wooden and earth fortifications of the Wawel Castle. In 1289, there were already stone defensive walls in the castle, probably built by Prince Leszek the Black. At the end of the 13th century, on the initiative of the last Krakow district princes, the so-called early Gothic palatium was built. The annex connecting the palatium with the previously mentioned Romanesque tower, i.e. the tower of final defense built on the ramparts of the Wawel Castle and dated to the 12th century, also dates back to approximately this period. 14th and 15th centuries At the beginning of the 14th century, the so-called The Early Tower, built on a square plan with sides of 12.7 × 13 m (in place of the later Danish Tower) and smaller buildings. In addition, there were still wooden buildings, which changed during the times of Casimir III the Great, who expanded the monarch's residence to accommodate the state apparatus, which was significantly enlarged by the king. The reason was also the imitation of the European style, modeled on other rulers of this continent. The castle then consisted of the chapel of St. Mary of Egypt, a two-story wing with cloisters on the courtyard side (intended for royal apartments), a thoroughly renovated Elbow Tower and other loosely located buildings, creating an irregular closed courtyard in the middle. The Gothic-style interiors were covered with paintings. The entire construction work was managed by Wacław from Tenczyn. The reign of Jadwiga of Anjou and Władysław II Jagiełło is associated with the addition of the Danish Tower and the Hen's Foot (which played the role of a dansker, i.e. a medieval castle toilet, reaching beyond the walls), as well as covering the walls with polychrome made by painters brought from Przemyśl. During the reign of Władysław Jagiełło, the Lower Gate complex was built, consisting of two gates and three towers. The Senatorska Tower and the Sandomierska Tower were also built, as well as the bulwarks of the upper castle and fortifications of the lower castle. The castle survived in this condition until 1500, when the part of the castle called Kurza Leg partially burned down, but the damage was not very serious. 16th century After the death of King John Albert, it was decided to rebuild the dilapidated medieval castle. The initiator of this project was King Alexander Jagiellon, who wanted the castle to be built in the (then new) Renaissance style. The construction was carried out by an Italian architect from Hungary - Franciszek Florentczyk, previously employed in the construction of the Renaissance tombstone of King Albert. In 1504, the artist began the reconstruction and addition of the western wing in the area of the gate. In order to expand the western wing, the chapel of Mary of Egypt was demolished. Masons and lapidians (masons and stonemasons) took part in the work, including: Jan from Koszyce, Ugulino the Italian, Kacper Simon from Sabinowo, Jan the Italian. In 1506, King Alexander died and the initiative to further expand, on a much wider scale, was taken by the new king, Sigismund I the Old. In 1507, the western wing of the gate, called "Alexander's Palace", was completed and then, on the king's initiative, work began on the construction of the northern wing, which was built in the years 1507–1515. The old residence of Bolesław the Chaste, called the "White Palace", was partially demolished, but older buildings, such as the Kurza Noga tower, the Danish Tower and the belvedere called Kurza Stopka, were preserved. These works were financed by Krakow banker Jan Boner, and then by Seweryn Boner. At the cathedral, in the years 1519–1533, the royal Sigismund chapel was built - a model work of Renaissance art in Poland. After the marriage of Sigismund I the Old with Bona Sforza, the eastern wing was built in 1520–1529, but the interior finishing lasted until 1535. Due to the death of Franciszek Florentczyk in 1516, the work was to be managed by Bartłomiej Berrecci, who, until 1526, was engaged in the construction of the Sigismund Chapel, entrusted this function to Benedykt of Sandomierz. The building being built at that time had the shape of a quadrilateral with an external courtyard. In 1530, the construction was taken over by Bartolomeo Berrecci, who completed the construction of the cloisters of the eastern wing. At that time, carpenters cooperated with him, including: Jerzy from Nysa, Sebastian Tauerbach from Wrocław, Hans Dürer from Nuremberg (Albrecht's brother), Piotr Dziwak (Wunderlich), Andrzej Jungholcz from Bavaria, Jan Poznańczyk and others. The residence was completed in 1536, but it suffered a fire in the same year, which destroyed the eastern wing and the southern curtain wall. Reconstruction began in 1537 under the supervision of Bartholomew Berrecci, but after his death in the same year, the construction was supervised by Nicholas Castiglione until 1545, and in the years 1545–1549 by Matthew the Italian. Soon, magnates and nobility began to build similar buildings, following the example of the castle. 17th and 18th centuries In 1595, a fire destroyed the roofs and part of the highest rooms of the northern wing and a fragment of the upper storey of the eastern wing. In the same year, on the orders of King Sigismund III Vasa, renovation work began and was carried out until 1603 with the participation of mainly Italian artists. The work was supervised by Giovanni Trevano, who collaborated with, among others, with Ambrose Meazi and John the Baptist Petrini. Some of the interiors were rebuilt in the early Roman Baroque style with Mannerist ceilings, stuccoes and polychromes by Tomasz Dolabella and Kasper Kurcz. The marble Senatorial Stairs, the Bird Room and a gazebo on the Danish Tower were built. The exterior of the palace was enriched with two slender corner towers: around 1603, the Sigismund III Vasa Tower (north-east corner near the belvedere) was built, and around 1620, the identical Sobieski Tower (north-west corner), topped with high cupolas. In 1606, King Sigismund III Vasa moved (together with his court) permanently to the Royal Castle in Warsaw. In 1649, a fire broke out in the Sigismund III tower and destroyed the roof. The condition of the residence deteriorated during the Swedish Deluge, when, after a week of defense, the castle was occupied by Swedish troops in the years 1655–1657, completely robbing it and significantly damaging it. The partial restoration took place during and at the expense of King Jan III Sobieski (in the years 1689–1692). Sobieski also appointed the painter Jan Trycjusz as a conservator of Wawel paintings. The greatest destruction of the castle occurred during the Third Northern War, when in 1702 Swedish soldiers lit a fire in one of the chambers, causing a fire in the castle that lasted for a week. It destroyed the roofs and most of the rooms in the northern wing up to the ground floor and most of the eastern wing up to the Parliamentary Stairs. Left unattended, the castle fell into disrepair, even though temporary new roofs were laid in 1705. The initiator of tidying up the interior and installing new roofs was the Bishop of Krakow, Konstanty Felicjan Szaniawski. Renovation works began in the years 1726–1730, according to the plans of the architect Kacper Bażanka. Further security works were carried out before the coronation of King Augustus III of Saxony before his arrival in January 1734. During the Bar Confederation, the castle was devastated during the Russian siege in 1772, when the Confederates, commanded by Claude Gabriel de Choisy, defended it there for over two months. After these events, only partial renovation of the castle was carried out within half a year before the arrival of King Stanisław August Poniatowski in 1787 according to the plans of the royal architect - Dominik Merlini in the classicist style. New floors were laid and windows were repaired. Three rooms on the first floor (including the Silver Room) date from this period. Some of the windows on the courtyard side were also bricked up, which protected the stonework from destruction during Austrian alterations in the next century. The facade of the gatehouse was rebuilt by demolishing the Renaissance attic, which was replaced with a gable roof and a gable with vases. In the years 1790–1792, a pincer wall with shooting ranges was built around the hill. In 1793, during the Kościuszko Uprising, after a short defense, the castle was occupied by Prussian troops, who then robbed all the movable property from the castle, and in 1795 they broke into the treasury and stole Polish royal insignia, which were then melted down into coins in Berlin. Pursuant to the provisions of the Third Partition of Poland, Austrian troops entered Wawel in 1796. 19th and 20th centuries After Poland lost its independence, Austrian troops entered the castle, destroying and plundering the former royal seat. The residence was intended as a barracks for Austrian troops. The reconstruction in the years 1803–1807 was carried out by military engineer Jan Markl. Larger rooms were then separated with partition walls (which resulted in many ceilings being destroyed, windows and some of the cloisters bricked up, the rest of which were bricked up later - during the Free City of Krakow in 1821–1823), and the roofs were lowered. In the years 1815–1846, at the request of the Senate of the Free City of Krakow, the so-called "Wawel town" consisting of a dozen or so buildings, often of medieval origin. In 1846, the castle was again occupied by Austrian troops. In the years 1850–1852, a new fortification circuit was built, and after 1854, the Austrians built a complex of hospital buildings in the lower castle. In the years 1854–1856, conservation works were carried out, which gave the castle a partially neo-Gothic character, depriving it of Renaissance and Baroque architectural elements. In 1868, the poet Wincenty Pol, in an article published in the "Czas" daily, proposed to restore the castle to its former glory and place a museum there, which increased efforts to conduct research and renovate the facility. At the end of the 19th century, there were many attempts to buy Wawel from the Austrians, but these efforts ended in failure. In 1880, the National Parliament donated the facility to Emperor Franz Joseph I, but this did not lead to any change. The situation changed when in 1903 the authorities of Krakow and Galicia bought garrison facilities located on Wawel Castle from the Austrian army for 3.5 million crowns. Soon, renovation works began according to the plans of architect Tomasz Pryliński. After leaving the Austrian army in the years 1905–1911, the restoration works were managed by the following architects: Zygmunt Hendel (1905–1914), who restored the arcade courtyard and replaced the roofs, Ignacy Sowiński (1914–1916), Karol Skawiński (1916), Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz (1916–1939 and 1945–1946), Bohdan Guerquin (1946–1947), Witold Minkiewicz (1947–1951), Alfred Majewski (1951–1983) and Przemysław Szafer (1984–1985). In 1920, the castle was recognized as the Building of the Republic of Poland, and in 1930, a museum was established here. In 1921, a gate was built from the north. Coat of Arms and a viewing loggia. In the interwar period, the President of the Republic of Poland, Ignacy Mościcki, periodically stayed at Wawel, because at that time Wawel was the residence of the head of state. During the German occupation (1939–1945), the residence served as the office and apartment of Governor General Hans Frank. Many alterations were made to the interior, and the buildings of the former kitchens and coach houses, which were already practically ruins, were combined to create one new and impressive facility, the so-called Royal Kitchens (1940–1943), fully enclosing the inner courtyard. The Bernardine Gate was also built at that time in place of a much more modest gate from the partition period. During the occupation, the Germans massively stole works of art from Wawel and all over Krakow. After World War II, conservation work began on the interiors, restoring their Renaissance, Baroque and (partly) Classicist appearance, furnishing them with works purchased or acquired from donors. Many donors included: the Konczakowski family from Cieszyn, Tadeusz Wierzejski, Tadeusz Raabe from Warsaw, Irena Antonina Bobbé née Szembek, Pelagia Potocka, the Roman Catholic Charitable Society in St. Petersburg, Jerzy Mycielski, Leon Piniński, Antonina and Dawid Abrahamowicz, Jakub Potocki from Brzeżany. In 1945, the National Council abolished the function of the facility as the residence of the head of state and gave it entirely to exhibition purposes, as a branch of the Wawel State Art Collections. Some rooms on the ground floor of the northern wing were also intended for the State Archives of Krakow. In the last decade of the 20th century, the castle was thoroughly renovated and the name of the institution was changed to Wawel Royal Castle - State Art Collections. In 2000, Karolina Lanckorońska (art historian) donated to the museum a collection of paintings from the 14th–16th centuries, ceramics and letters from Jacek Malczewski to Karol Lanckoroński. Paintings in the Wawel Royal Castle Lanckoroński Collections Appearance The castle is a two-story building with three wings (with rooms) and one screen wing (from the south). Its exterior and interior design are Renaissance, Baroque, and partly Classicist. It has a courtyard with arcaded cloisters, an entrance gate and five residential towers. From the outside In the corner of the western and northern wings there is the Sobieski Tower. The two-story Berrecci gate extends from the west wing. It leads to the inner courtyard, enclosed on four sides by the castle wings and on the fifth side by a building created by combining the former royal kitchens and coach houses during the Nazi occupation. The surface is covered with paving stones and limestone. The cloisters, surrounding the courtyard from the side of the castle wings, are supported on columns with closed arcades, except for the second floor, where the columns are twice as large, ending with jugs supporting the roof truss, and half of them tied with a garter. The windows and doors are decorated with stone decorations. In the north-east corner there is the so-called Sigismund III Tower. At the northern part of the eastern wing stands the Danish Tower, which is a Gothic remnant of the castle. Gothic elements of the residence also include the Kurza Stopka, located between the Danish and Sigismund III towers and supporting the eastern wing, as well as the tower called Jordanka, which blends diagonally into the eastern part of the building. The facility is also adjacent to the Royal Gardens on the southern (from which the main entrance to them is located), northern and eastern sides. It is divided into the Queen's Garden and the King's Garden, currently being reconstructed. There were many pavilions and a road to the king's baths, which rose outside the walls of the hill. The castle is connected to the Wawel Cathedral with a courtyard called Batory and a passage built within the courtyard. In the past, there was also the queen's bathhouse (of which a bathtub remains), and the chapel of St. Mary of Egypt. In the underground there are relics of the church of St. Gereon. Interiors The residence has 71 exhibition rooms, grouped in five permanent exhibitions, and two representative staircases: Senator's and Parliament's. Most rooms are decorated in the Renaissance and Baroque styles (e.g. the Eagle Room), but there are rooms rebuilt in the classicist style (e.g. the Column Hall) and from the interwar period (Mościcki's apartment). In addition, there are several Gothic rooms - the ground floor of the former Elbow Tower, currently the Crown Treasury. When arranging the interiors, their historical appearance was not based on the lack of sufficient materials. The doors come from the interwar period, as do most of the floors and chandeliers, and some of the portals, ceilings and friezes are reconstructions. In the past, at the end of the 14th century, the royal bedroom was decorated with paintings by Russian painters from Przemyśl. There were also embroidered tapestries hanging there. Nothing of the Gothic furnishings has survived to this day, and little is known about other rooms. The preserved Gothic rooms currently include the ground floor rooms in the north-eastern corner (the area of the former Łokietkowa and Duńska towers), i.e. in the Crown Treasury. In one of its rooms (the Casimir the Great Hall) a small fragment of 14th-century polychrome has been preserved. During the Renaissance, the ground floor rooms were used for commercial purposes: offices, court chambers, knights' chambers, armories, crown treasury, waiting rooms, warehouses, etc. On the first floor there were private royal apartments and living rooms of the court and entourage. The chambers on the second floor (the so-called piano nobile) had representative functions. Therefore, the interiors on the ground floor were more modestly decorated than the rooms on the first and second floors, which were covered with larch beams and coffered ceilings with gilded rosettes or carved heads. The envoys' receptions, games, meetings, feasts, etc. were held there. Friezes (also called ends) were painted under the ceilings, and tapestries, tapestries and paintings were hung below. The doors were framed with polychrome portals, and subsequent rooms were heated by colorful tiled stoves. Moreover, the rooms were equipped with furniture and earthenware. The chambers were lit by candlesticks attached to the ceiling. Partenopeus Suavius (Carmignano), an Italian poet who came with Queen Bona, described the interior of the residence as follows: In the 17th century, after the fire of 1595, the ceilings were covered with plafonds with paintings by Thomas Dolabella, and the walls were covered with polychromes by the same artist, as well as tapestries and Lyon silks, as well as Persian fabrics. The rooms were heated by marble fireplaces. The portals were also made of marble. All this with the features of early Roman Baroque. Three rooms come from the Classical period: the Column Hall and the rooms adjacent to it. Nowadays After the Austrian troops left the castle in 1905, the buildings converted into barracks were removed. The destroyed fragments were replaced with new ones (e.g. the capitals of the columns in the inner courtyard), and the damaged window and door frames were supplemented from the found elements. In the northern wing, the walls were lined with curtains from the castle in Moritzburg, purchased from the Viennese antiquarian Szymon Szwarc, and the ceilings were covered with new ceiling lamps, based on the ceiling lamps from the castle in Podhorce and inserting paintings by contemporary painters. In the rooms of the eastern wing, the ceilings were decorated with new coffered ceilings (mainly on the second floor), and the friezes were supplemented or new ones were painted. In place of the unpreserved Renaissance tiled stoves, 18th-century stoves from the castle in Wiśniowiec in Volhynia were inserted. In addition, at the end of the 19th century, in connection with the transfer of the building to Emperor Franz Joseph I, Jan Matejko donated the painting "Prussian Homage" to the residence in 1882. Museum exhibits were collected through gifts, purchases and deposits, which continues to this day. The collections were organized according to plans developed by Dr. Jerzy Szablowski, in cooperation with Adam Młodzianowski. Exhibitions Of the eight permanent museum exhibitions, five are located in the castle, and the sixth - the royal gardens, the youngest of the exhibitions (opened in 2005), is a part of the residence. In the castle itself there are the Representative Royal Chambers and Private Royal Apartments (formerly forming one exhibition - Furnishings of halls and chambers), the Crown Treasury and the Armory (formerly separately) and the Art of the East (formerly also the East in the Wawel collections). Representative Royal Chambers The exhibition includes the apartment of the Krakow mayor on the ground floor with well-preserved portals and larch beam ceilings, and the second-floor chambers (the so-called piano nobile), performing representative functions, located in the northern and eastern wings. The exhibition rooms are equipped with antique furniture, paintings, ceramics, sculptures and tapestries of Sigismund Augustus. The walls of some rooms are lined with curtains from the 18th century, and the ceilings are covered with plafonds, stucco and coffered ceilings. Under these ceilings there are friezes, also called friezes. These chambers served as places for receiving deputies, senate meetings, court ceremonies, and balls. Among the many rooms there are, among others: Deputies' Hall, Tournament Hall, Under the Military Review, Under the Zodiac, Under the Planets, Battle of Orsza, Sigismund III's Dining Room, Royal Bedroom, Office, Royal Chapel, Under the Birds Hall, Under the Eagle Hall and Senators' Hall. Royal Private Apartments Royal private apartments are rooms on the first floor, used by the royal family and the court entourage as private places where individual members of the court slept and spent some part of the day. There are, among others: a guest apartment, a royal apartment, President Mościcki's apartment and a room for storing table silverware, rebuilt in the 18th century by Dominik Merlini for the arrival of King Stanisław August Poniatowski. Crown Treasury The exhibition is located on the ground floor of the castle, in the north-eastern corner, which is a remnant of the former Elbow Tower. The items collected here come from, among others: from former magnate treasuries or are remnants of a former treasury. Of the five exhibition halls, three are Gothic (hall, Jadwiga and Jagiełło Hall and Casimir the Great Hall). The vault contains e.g. coronation slippers of Sigismund Augustus, Szczerbiec (the coronation sword of Polish kings), the sword of Sigismund the Old and his burial crown, chess pieces and a miniature portrait of Sigismund III and an eagle from the tableware of King John Casimir. Armory The exhibition, located in the eastern wing of the facility, houses examples of firearms, bladed weapons, protective equipment, etc. Five rooms on the ground floor and the basement are intended for exhibitions. Although the armory at Wawel never existed (apart from a few rooms in the west wing, where the king kept his private weapons), it was decided to display the museum's collections at such an exhibition. The exhibits come mainly from archaeological excavations, arsenals of magnates and nobility, and from private collectors. The exhibition opened in 1963. Art of the East Many Polish kings were lovers of oriental items, which they collected in their private collections. This influx of works increased after John III Sobieski's victory over the Turks near Vienna. This exhibition brings closer these passions of the monarchs, showing collections of exotic weaving, ceramics and eastern weapons. Jan III Sobieski Tower Sigismund III Vasa Tower Jordanka Tower Danish Tower Kurza Stopka Royal Gardens The newest exhibition of the oldest gardens discovered in Poland shows the gardening of the Renaissance period. The found brick paths allowed for the reconstruction of the upper terrace, so-called the queen's garden, where herbs and roses were grown. Subsequent archaeological works will soon reveal further parts of this garden, which, according to contemporary witnesses, contained several pavilions: a gazebo, called Paradise, an aviary and a vineyard. The road to the king's baths, located outside the hill walls, also ran through there. Technical description Area balance Plot area: 40,000 m² Building area: 13,500 m² Paved area: 15,000 m² Green area: 11,500 m² The castle was built on an area of 56,973 m² and is the second facility of this type in Poland in terms of the area occupied (after the castle in Malbork). See also the Royal Palace in Łobzów in Krakow (summer royal residence) Palaces of Krakow - list of palaces located in Krakow Footnotes Bibliography Na Wawelu. "Illustrated News". 52, pp. 7–11, December 26, 1908. Kazimierz Kuczman: Wawel. Guide. Kraków: 1999. Antoni Franaszek: Wawel Castle. Warsaw: 1988. ISBN 83-85028-80-3. Halina Bohdanowicz: Wawel. Ed. 1. Warsaw: 1979. ISBN 83-217-2229-6. Leszek Ludwikowski: Kraków and surroundings. Guide. Ed. 3 supplements. Warsaw: 1991. ISBN 83-217-2823-5. Stanisław Windakiewicz: The history of Wawel. Kraków: 1991. ISBN 83-85347-00-3. External links Official website of the Wawel Royal Castle Wawel Royal Castle on the city's official website Archival views and publications about the castle in the Polona library Mieczysław Morka: Art of the court of Sigismund I the Old. Political and propaganda content. Stanisław Mossakowski: The Royal Palace of Sigismund I on Wawel as a Renaissance work.
