Wawel Cathedral
Wawel Cathedral | |
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Katedra Wawelska ( Archdiocese of Kraków | |
Rite | Latin |
Ecclesiastical or organizational status | Royal Arch-cathedral Basilica |
Status | Active |
Location | |
Location | Kraków, Poland |
Geographic coordinates | 50°03′17″N 19°56′07″E / 50.0546°N 19.9354°E |
Architecture | |
Type | Church |
Style | Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical |
Completed | 11th century |
The Wawel Cathedral (
The current
It is the official seat of the
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 Piotr Gembicki and created by Giovanni Battista Gisleni. The altar painting of Crucified Christ by Marcin Blechowski is from the 17th century.[2] 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 national patron Stanislaus of Szczepanów (also Stanisław Szczepanowski) created between 1669 and 1671 after the previous one (donated in 1512 by King Sigismund I the Old) was stolen by the Swedes in 1655.[3]
Sigismund's Chapel
Sigismund's Chapel, or Zygmunt Chapel ("Kaplica Zygmuntowska"),[4] 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."[4] Financed by Sigismund I the Old, it was built between 1517 and 1533 by Bartolommeo Berrecci, a Florentine Renaissance architect, who spent most of his career in Poland.
A square-based chapel with a golden dome, it houses the tombs of its founder and those of his children, King Sigismund II Augustus and Anna Jagiellon (Jagiellonka).
Royal chapels and crypts
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.
The crypts beneath the Wawel Cathedral hold the tombs of
Crypt of National Poets
Here are buried the national bards: Adam Mickiewicz (laid to rest there in 1890) and Juliusz Słowacki (1927).
Notable burials
Monarchs | Saints | |
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Others
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Gallery
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The Sigismund's Tower, which contains theSigismund's Bell
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The cathedral's treasury
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Stained-glass window in the Holy Trinity Chapel
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The sarcophagus of Jadwiga of Poland
See also
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Notes
References
- ISBN 0-06-073203-2.
- ^ "Wawel". www.integracja.org (in Polish). Retrieved 2010-09-11.
- ISBN 83-907760-1-4.
- ^ a b CODART, an international network of curators of art from the Low Countries, "The CODART List - Study trip to Gdańsk, Warsaw and Kraków (18-25 April 2004) - Museums with Dutch art and Flemish art". Archived from the original on 2005-12-02. Retrieved 2007-12-23. Accessed 2007-12-23
- ^ Marek Strzala. "Royal tombs" (in Polish). Krakow-info.com. Retrieved 2010-09-11.
External links
Media related to Wawel Cathedral at Wikimedia Commons