Bartolomeo Berrecci (c. 1480–1537)

Architect and sculptor from Florence, member of Kazimierz city council. Invited to Poland in 1516, Berrecci was employed in the expansion and redevelopment of the royal castles of Wawel and Niepołomice. His major and most consummate work, however, is the Renaissance Tomb Chapel of King Sigismund the Old (Zygmunt I Stary) in Wawel Cathedral, known as the Sigismund Chapel. In 1519–5124, the artist made the canopy for the tomb of King Ladislaus (Władysław) Jagiełło and the tombs of Bishop Jan Konarski (Chapel of Bishop Konarski in Wawel Cathedral, 1521), Bishop Jan Lubrański in Poznań Cathedral, and of Bishop Piotr Tomicki (1532–1533) in Wawel Cathedral. The artist died in Kraków, stabbed by another Italian, and was buried by the Corpus Christi Church in today’s district of Kazimierz.



Sigismund Chapel, maginificent example of Kraków's sacral architecture, work by Bartolomeo Berrecci, photo by Jakub Meissner