Construction of Wawel Castle - design, stages, reconstruction, costs, interesting facts

 From the first Palaeolithic buildings, through the seat of the Vistulans, the Piast and Jagiellonian capital of the country, to one of the most important symbols of the country. The Wawel Royal Castle has an extremely interesting, over a thousand-year history. Information about the first inhabitants of Wawel Hill dates back 1000 years. Already for the first Piasts it was an important center, the first representative and defense elements of the castle date back to this period. Its present appearance shows the effect of the successive stages of construction and reconstruction spread over time between the 10th and 20th centuries. Today, the interior of this royal residence covers an area of ​​over 7,000 m2 and is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Stages of construction and reconstruction of Wawel - construction of Wawel

Wawel - first information and Wawel Royal Castle

Krakow's Wawel Hill is located in the bend of the Vistula River. It is located in the Old Town, right on the river. Its shape and location - including the close vicinity of wetlands - made it a very good place for the development of the settlement.

The first traces of settlement in this part of Kraków date back 100,000 years. Thus, they are among the oldest in Poland, which can be attributed to the fact that the last glaciation did not reach these areas. The proximity of the river and the location on the route of important trade routes enabled the first settlement to develop rapidly.

With time, the Wawel castle became one of the most important centers of the Vistula tribe. The first legends related to the area of ​​Krakow are dated to the early medieval period: about the founder of the city - Krak, the Wawel dragon, and princess Wanda. With time, the lands of Vistula found themselves in the newly created Piast state.

Piast Wawel and Wawel Royal Castle

Archaeological research has confirmed the strong settlement of Wawel in the early Piast period, although these were still the beginnings of the development of this area. After the Gniezno Congress, Krakow became one of the new episcopal capitals in Poland. Therefore, the first stone cathedral soon appeared on Wawel. The first religious project in this area was the rotunda of the Blessed Virgin Mary (today the rotunda of St. Felix and Adaukt) - one of the oldest buildings in Poland.

During the first Piasts, the construction of defensive and representative elements began, which in the future became a castle. As a result of the invasion of the Czech prince Brzetysław in the first half of the 11th century, Greater Poland was completely plundered - Anonymous Gall wrote that the interiors of the Gniezno cathedral were occupied by wild animals.

The return of Kazimierz I the Restorer to the country meant the need to establish a new administrative center of the state, and it was Krakow. It is assumed that at that time a hall with 24 pillars could have served as a palas. According to archaeologists, a typical fortified castle was built at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries. Other residential, sacred and defensive buildings were built at that time. Important changes in the appearance of Wawel were introduced by Kazimierz's successor - Władysław Herman. It was he who commissioned the construction of a new cathedral, in which the treasury was placed, containing the crown insignia of his brother - King Bolesław the Bold.

During the almost 200-year-long division of the districts, resulting from the division of the country by Bolesław Krzywousty, the Krakow castle was the seat of the senior - the country's head. At that time, during the reign of Bolesław the Chaste, fortifications were rebuilt. From the end of the thirteenth century, the processes aimed at the unification of Polish lands intensified, ultimately this art was successful for Władysław Łokietkowo. He was the first king to be coronated in the Wawel Cathedral of St. Stanislaus and St. Wenceslas. This cathedral also became the traditional burial place for most Polish monarchs.

Stages of construction and reconstruction of Wawel - Piasts, Jagiellons, and elective rulers

Stages of construction and reconstruction of Wawel of the last Piasts and the first Jagiellons

Wawel has not avoided such tragedies as fires in its history. One of them at the beginning of the 14th century to some extent destroyed the cathedral. The construction of a new temple was commissioned by Władysław Łokietek. The royal contribution to the expansion and reconstruction of the castle brought him the first period of its glory. During the reign of Casimir the Great, the castle in Kraków was already the seat of a magnificent manor house, which lived mainly in castle interiors.

A little less attention is paid to Wawel by Ludwik Węgierski and his mother ruling on his behalf, and the sister of Casimir the Great - Elżbieta. Ludwik's daughter Jadwiga and her husband Władysław Jagiełło are responsible for the design and ordering the next reconstruction of the castle. Probably the most famous element of Wawel architecture, created during the first Jagiellonian dynasty, is the crow's foot, which is still in a slightly changed form to this day.

Jadwiga and Władysław started another period of splendor of the Krakow castle. At that time, numerous towers and other administrative and residential rooms were added. More and more people appeared in the interiors and the courtyard. At the end of the 15th century, the most famous tombstone there - hiding the body of Kazimierz Jagiellończyk - appeared in the Wawel Cathedral. Wit Stwosz was responsible for its design and implementation.

Reconstruction of Zygmunt Stary and Zygmunt III Waza

Information about the next reconstruction of Wawel is again connected with the fire. This time the fire appeared in 1499. The reconstruction of the surviving parts began 5 years later, during the reign of Aleksander Jagiellończyk. The works of that time contain the first elements of the Renaissance, replacing the Gothic style.

From 1507, the country was ruled by Sigismund I the Old. It is mainly to him that we owe to a large extent today's appearance of Wawel, including the famous Renaissance courtyard. However, bringing in the Italian artists responsible for the redevelopment doubled its costs. It is also worth mentioning the separate toilets in which the new apartments were equipped - one hundred years older Versailles did not have any. Zygmunt also rebuilt the old, gothic part of the castle from foundations.

Another serious fire broke out in 1595. According to some, Sigismund III Vasa, who carried out alchemical experiments in the castle, was supposed to be responsible for causing it. The degree of destruction was so great that the reconstruction was at a great cost and forced the residents to partially leave the residence. Eventually, in 1606, the manor moved to Warsaw for good, and the Krakow castle was slowly declining.

After the partitions, Wawel became Austrian barracks. Galicia took over military facilities only at the beginning of the 20th century. The two world wars will worsen the condition of the building again. It was only from 1945 that Wawel again underwent the process of reconstruction and conservation, which ensured it was entered on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1978.

Bibliography:

Czapliński W., Ladogórski T., Historical Atlas of Poland, Polskie Przedsiębiorstwo Wydawnictw Kartograficznych, Warsaw 1970

Kozieł S., Niżnik J., Kraków - Wawel, Archaeological booklet: research, vol. 9, Warsaw 1975

Stępień P., Conservation of the relics of the rotunda of St. st. Feliks and Adaukt at Wawel, Protection of monuments, vol. 44, issue 2, 1991

Windakiewicz S., The History of Wawel, Krakow Publishing Company, Krakow 1925

Wisner H., Zygmunt III Waza, School and Pedagogical Publishers, Warsaw 1984

Żaki A., Archeology of Early Medieval Lesser Poland, Ossolineum, Wrocław 1974