Sightseeing today started with a hunt for churches. While there are many, many old churches in Krakow, it seems the Easter weekend has packed the schedule with services attended by The Faithful... And you're not allowed to sight see in the church while a service is in session (whaaa??!!) -- even if the service is only attended by 8 nuns and 2 priests.....
A quick lunch and we were ready for the tour of Wawel Castle.
Our guided tour included the State Rooms and the Lost Wawel exhibitions of the castle, and my brain is about to explode from trying to grab and hold onto facts as she spouted them on the run.
(Seriously, it was on the run... It felt like they'd added 2 extra tours per day onto this tour guide during the Easter weekend... She was hustling us and talking fast and panting the entire time. Another thing that added non-tour time onto the tour guide was that for each exhibition she had to leave us in the courtyard, go inside with her paperwork, register our group, come outside and shepherd us all in... It would have probably streamlined her day if someone had registered the prepaid groups in advance... But, I digress.)
Here's the gist of what I remember...
The tragedy of Polish history - disappearing from the map altogether at least twice since 1790 - means that this castle / fortress has undergone many phases of ownership and various opinions of its cultural significance. This roller coaster ride resulted in Wawel being stripped of most original furnishings. While the museum has worked hard to re-furnish the building with pieces of the right time period, they've had to search throughout Europe, and most of the pieces are not Polish.
Construction of the castle, on a high point above the Vistula, began in the 1300s.
Fires during the years destroyed much original work, such as coffered ceilings. These ceilings have been reconstructed. There are original wood ceilings in three rooms.
Sigismund I the Old and his (immigrant!!) second wife, Bona Sforza of Italy, brought in Italian artists to modernize and decorate the castle and grounds in the 1530s.
Some of the Sforza commissioned frescoes (interior and exterior!) still exist.
At one point it became fashionable to cover walls in colorfully painted cordovan (leather), applied like wallpaper.
One king bought a collection of Flemish tapestries, 100+ giant wall hangings surviving through the centuries. In the mad lead up to WWII, these tapestries were removed and packed up, shipped in a circuitous route through Europe to Great Britain, and then shipped to Canada for safe storage.
During German occupation in WWII, the German governor general of Krakow and his family resided in Wawel castle.
Photography was only allowed outside.
