Wawel Cathedral on Wawel Hill
Wawel Hill, Kraków
Wawel
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Wawel Cathedral – the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Stanisław and Vaclav – is Poland's national sanctuary, located on Wawel Hill in Kraków. It has a 1,000-year history and was the traditional coronation site of Polish monarchs. It is the cathedral of the archdiocese of Kraków. Pope John Paul II had considered being buried there.

Contents

Interior

The Cathedral comprises a nave with aisles, transepts with aisles, a choir with double aisles, and an apse with ambulatory and radiating chapels. The main altar, located in the apse, was founded about 1650 by Bishop Gembicki and created by Gisleni. The altar painting of Crucified Christ is from the 17th century[1]. Over the main altar stands a tall canopy of black marble supported by four pillars, designed by Giovanni Battista Trevano and Matteo Castelli between 1626 and 1629. Underneath the canopy is placed a silver coffin of St. Stanisław created between 1669-1671 after the previous one (donated in 1512 by King Sigismund the Old) was stolen by the Swedes in 1655 [2].

Sigismund's Chapel (right, with a gold dome) and Vasa Dynasty chapel (to the left)

Chapels and burial chambers

The Wawel Cathedral has been the main burial site for Polish monarchs since the 14th century. As such, it has been significantly extended and altered over time as individual rulers have added multiple burial chapels.

Sigismund's Chapel

Main article: Sigismund's Chapel

Sigismund's Chapel, or Zygmunt Chapel, [3] ("Kaplica Zygmuntowska"), adjoining the southern wall of the cathedral, is one of the most notable pieces of architecture in Kraków and perhaps "the purest example of Renaissance architecture outside Italy."[3] Financed by King Sigismund I the Old, it was built in 1517-33 by Bartolomeo Berrecci.

A square-based chapel with a golden dome houses the tombs of its founder as well as of his children, King Sigismund II Augustus and Anna Jagiellonka.

People buried in Wawel Cathedral

See St. Leonard's Crypt.

Main gate between the St. Sophia's Chapel (right) and the Holy Cross Chapel (left)
Tomb of king Władysław of Varna

Polish kings

Polish saints

Famous people

Gallery

The canopy

Silver coffin of St. Stanisław

The main altar

Tomb of bishop Kajetan Soltyk

The Cathedral Treasury, built between 1481 and 1500 in the late Gothic style

Waza Dynasty Chapel (left) and Sigismund's Chapel (right)

Tomb of king Casimir The Great, 14th century

Royal tombs

Stained glass window

Stained glass window

Stained glass window

Fragment of the Cyprian Kamil Norwid's tomb in the Bards' Crypt by Czesław Dźwigaj

The Sigismund bell

View of Krakow from the Wawel Cathedral bell staircase

Gradual of King John I Albert of Poland in the Cathedral's Sacristy

References

  1. ^ (Polish) Wzgórze wawelskie wraz z siedzibą królewską at www.integracja.org
  2. ^ (Polish) Święci miesiąca Święty Stanisław Szczepanowski
  3. ^ a b CODART, an international network of curators of art from the Low Countries, [1] Accessed 2007-12-23

See also

Sister project Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wawel Cathedral

External links

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