Royal Chambers

The reconstruction of the formerly Gothic Wawel Castle was carried out around 1502-1540. King Sigismund the Old (Zygmunt Stary) paid for his brainchild which turned the somewhat austere castle into a Renaissance palace residence of high artistic taste. Today, Wawel Castle is one of Poland’s largest and greatest museums. The entrance to the exhibitions seen during a visit to the chambers is situated in the eastern wing of the castle.

The rooms on the first floor house exhibits that are based on the original character and furnishing of the chambers. This floor, known as the gmachy średnie, used to be predominantly private royal apartments. The rooms situated to the right of the staircase are of particular note. There are beautifully painted wooden ceilings preserved in three of them, and on the lower sections of the walls below them there are friezes, formerly known in Polish as krańce.

The last of these rooms, situated in the corner, is the bedroom of King Sigismund the Old (Zygmunt Stary). It is believed that it was in this room that the king breathed his last. Later, it provided lodging for his son, King Sigismund Augustus (Zygmunt August). Legend has it that it was in this chamber that the wizard Jan Twardowski was to summon the spirit of his beloved, prematurely deceased wife, Barbara Radziwiłłówna. Running under the 16th-century ceiling is a painted frieze with medallions framed in grotesques and garlands dating from approx. 1530. Attention is turned to the powerful Gothic–Renaissance doors of a type typical of Wawel castle, and the stove from the 17th/18th century brought here from the castle in Wiśniowiec in Volhynia, which was destroyed during the first world war (two others were placed in the neighbouring halls).

Situated on the other side of the staircase are a number of chambers that before the second world war were transformed into the private apartments of the President of the Republic of Poland, Ignacy Mościcki (1930). During the second world war, they became the apartment of the Nazi Governor Hans Frank. The most interesting of these rooms is the so-called Alchemia whose vaulting is supported on a single column. Its name comes from the workshop which, according to tradition, Sigismund III Vasa (Zygmunt III Waza) had installed here to conduct mysterious experiments with the alchemist Sędziwój: the gentlemen were mostly working on a method of transmuting metals into gold.

The second floor was known as the gmachy wyższe, and at times its Italian name piano nobile was used. The State Chambers where the monarchs exercised their royal duties, were situated here. In these halls they entertained delegations, gave audiences, and sat in court. The south-eastern corner of this floor is taken by the chamber known as Under the Heads, or the Audience Hall from the sculpted and painted heads (dating from around 1540) found along the ceiling beams. There used to be 194 of them, but only 30 have survived to this day. There is a legend connected to the head of a woman with a band covering her mouth. When King Sigismund Augustus was issuing an important court decision the head is rumoured to have spoken out loudly Rex Auguste iudica iuste (O, King August, make a just judgement). The King listened to the counsel, yet since that time the mouth of the woman has been covered by a band so that she never again intervenes with royal judgements.

The chambers of the northern wing of the castle were rebuilt in the baroque style after the fire of 1595. One of the most beautiful – The Hall under the Birds – is situated where the northern wing meets the eastern wing. The name comes from the tin birds that used to hang from the ceiling; today, the justification of the name is the frieze with painted birds that surrounds the entire room. Its other decorations include a marble fireplace, designed by Giovanni Trevano and portals with coats-of-arms of the Vasa dynasty. The coffer panels in the ceiling are decorated with paintings by Tommaso Dolabella. Interesting elements of the decoration are the 18th-century kurdybany: sheets of stamped, painted, and gilded leather that cover entire walls not unlike today’s wallpapers. It was King Sigismund III Vasa’s favourite chamber. Adjacent to it is the small chapel where the king usually listened to Holy Mass. In the chapel, attention is turned to the lavish stucco decoration and the altar with a triptych with the Holy Trinity from the latter half of the 16th century brought here from the Na Gródku Convent of Dominican nuns.
A real marvel at the other end of the northern wing is the largest of the castle’s chambers: the Senators’ Hall. This used to be the backdrop to great balls, receptions, and court festivities. In 1518, it saw the first royal wedding: of Sigismund the Old to Bona Sforza. Today it is especially famous for its tapestries.

The collection of tapestries was made in 1550-1560 in the workshops of Flanders to the special order of King Sigismund Augustus. It consists of tapestries showing scenes from the Bible divided into three series: the history of Adam and Eve, the story of Noah and the Ark, and the period of the Tower of Babel; tapestries presenting landscape and animal scenes; grotesque works; and tapestries bearing the coat-of-arms of Poland and Lithuania and the initials of King Sigismund Augustus. The collection on show in many of the Wawel interiors consists of 136 tapestries; there are two more exhibited away from Kraków: one in Warsaw and one in Amsterdam. The significance and value of the collection is even greater because it was ordered especially for the Wawel Castle, hence the sizes of the individual works perfectly fit the interiors. The “arrasy”, as Poles call them, are one of the most precious collections in the entire Castle.

You can find more information on visits to the Royal Chambers in the Museums section.