Скачать или смотреть Wawel Royal castle visit | kraków city tour | summer trip 2022🏰

The Wawel Royal Castle and the Wawel Hill constitute the most historically and culturally important site in Po­land.
For centuries the residence of the kings of Poland and the symbol of Polish statehood, the Castle is now one of the country’s premier art museums. Established in 1930, the museum encompasses ten curatorial departments responsible for collections of paintings, including an important collection of Italian Renaissance paintings, prints, sculpture, textiles, among them the Sigismund II Augustus tapestry collection, goldsmith’s work, arms and armor, ceramics, Meissen porcelain, and period furniture. The museum’s holdings in oriental art include the largest collection of Ottoman tents in Europe. With seven specialized conservation studios, the museum is also an important center for the conservation of works of art.
Over one million visitors tour the Castle’s permanent collections and temporary exhibitions each year, while an estimated two million visit the Wawel Hill. The Castle’s permanent exhibitions recreate the appearance of the royal residence in the Renaissance and Baroque eras.
About 20,000 schoolchildren yearly participate in dedicated museum lessons. In addition, many children at­tend workshops and take part in academic and artistic competitions.

The Wawel Royal Castle also hosts a lively program of events including symphonic and chamber music concerts and performances of opera and courtly dance.

The visitor center holds cafés, shops, and other visitor services.
History

The Wawel Hill is to Krakow what the Acropolis was to ancient Athens or the Capitoline Hill to Rome. The rocky outcropping tower­ing over the banks of the Vistula has been the seat of secular and ecclesiastical power since the early Middle Ages, but in fact there is evi­dence of human habitation on the site dating as far back as the Paleolithic era. Mieszko I (r. ca. 960–992), the first historical ruler and creator of the Polish state, chose the hill as the site of one of his residences. His baptism in 966 brought Poland into the orbit of Western culture. The bishopric of Krakow was established in 1000 and the first cathedral on Wawel Hill was built.

Wawel experienced its golden age from the 14th through the 16th centuries under the last Piast kings and the Jagiellon dynasty. The Jagiellonian kings Alexander I (r. 1501–1506), Sigismund I the Old (r. 1506–1548), and Sigismund II Augustus (r. 1548–1572) transformed the now too small medieval castle into one of the finest Italianate Renais­sance palaces in Central Europe. Sigismund I and his son presided over a great flowering of the arts and humanities.

Wawel’s significance began to wane when Sigismund III Vasa (r. 1587–1632) moved his court to Warsaw in 1609–1611. It remained a royal residence and the cathedral continued to be the site of the coronations and burials of Poland’s kings. The ensuing years brought a slow but steady decline. The castle was sacked and looted during the Swedish Deluge that swept through the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at mid-century. The final blow came in the 18th century with the partitions of Poland; in 1796 the castle was converted to barracks for the Austrian army. A monumental restoration project was under­taken in the early years of the 20th century and when Poland regained her independence, the castle was converted into a residential museum #wawelcastle #krakow #wawel #w #cracow #poland #krak #polska #krakowplaces #castle #travel #krakowpoland #visitkrakow #igerskrakow #wawelcathedral #zamek #krakowoldtown #europe #zamekkr #cracovia #photooftheday #cracowcity #photography #visitpoland #trip #travelphotography #city #krakowlove #oldtown #krakau