Wawel Royal Castle
Wawel Royal Castle Cracow / Kraków
has witnessed royal coronations and funerals
A few hundred meters from the Main Market Square stands the Royal Castle.
It is located on top of Wawel Hill which commands a view of the whole town. The Wawel Cathedral has witnessed royal coronations and funerals. The Wawel Castle was where the most important decisions determining the country and its people were taken. The origins of this magnificent structure date back to the year 1000.
Every visitor to Cracow should see the Renaissance cloister in the castle and the beautiful royal chambers, decorated with tapestries manufactured by Flemish masters. The most impressive is the Chamber of Deputies with its original carved ceiling featuring polychrome heads of Cracovian burghers.
Adjacent to the castle is the Wawel Cathedral, not only a splendid historical building but also a functioning church as well as the national Pantheon containing the tombs of many Polish kings, national heroes and poets of the Romantic period. The showpiece of the church interiors is the Renaissance Zygmunt Chapel.
