Royal Castle – The history of royal residence
The beginnings of the Wawel residence of Polish rulers associated with wczesnoromańską stone building, called the palace, with about half of the XI century, whose remains lie in the northern wing of the current castle. With time, the prince’s office on the hill was expanded in an easterly direction. It was, along with the cathedral, so. castle higher (in the castle of “lower” arose from the town houses of courtiers, clerics and other churches). In the fourteenth century greatly expanded the office of the ruler king Ladislaus the Short, and his son Kazimierz the Great built up an impressive Gothic residence, consisting of several buildings clustered around an irregular courtyard in the east. part of the hill. During the reign of Wladyslaw Jagiello, the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the castle was enlarged by a Gothic pavilion, called. tower, the Danish state and the building survived the fire in the 1499 Around 1504 King Alexander Jagiello began to rebuild the Gothic mansion, giving it the shape of a renaissance. For this purpose, hired a German architect Eberhard, and an Italian sculptor and architect Francis called Florentczykiem. Brother continued to work from 1507 called Sigismund I the Old. Master Francis, author of the stone, decorative bay window in the west wing, before his death in 1516 he built the east wing and started to build the cloister. Further work directed successively master of Benedict, the famous Bartholomew Berrecci (creator of the Sigismund Chapel in the Cathedral), and after his death in 1537 Nicholas and Matthew Castiglione, Italy. With interior work sculptors, wood-carver – builders of wooden ceilings: Sebastian Tauerbach and Hans woodcarver, and painters who decorated the wall friezes and royal portraits created. Meeting and splendor of a castle acquired after purchase by Sigismund Augustus, the great Flemish tapestries.
Preserved to this day Renaissance building, with a beautiful arcaded courtyard, impressive momentum assumption, brightly lit interior spaciousness and splendor is not known yet on Polish soil, through the use of architectural forms derived from ancient art, has caused a breakthrough in the development of architecture in Poland. In the sixteenth century the castle was the venue of the Diet. Deliberations were held in the Chamber of Deputies, while the Senate gathered in the hall named for this reason the Senators.
Following a fire in 1595 the northern wing of the castle, Sigismund III Vasa renewed it in early Baroque style, employing Italian artists: the architect and painter John Trevano Tommaso Dolabella. Since around 1610 when the royal court and settled in Warsaw, monarchs visited the Wawel only periodically, mostly weddings, coronations and funerals-made with great parade. In the year 1702, during the occupation by the Swedes Castle building was once again threatening fire. Renewed later, never failed to reach its original splendor.
When Poland lost its independence, the castle took the Austrians in 1796, bringing it to the needs of the military garrison. In the early nineteenth century, including walled cloisters. After the dedication Castle Poles and left the hill in 1911 by the Austrian army occupying them, proceeded to the multi-going half-century renewal of the royal office, restoring her to a large extent its original appearance. Action directed first architect Zygmunt Hendel, from 1916 to World War II, Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz, and later mainly Alfred Majewski. The interiors of a museum and exhibition has become the backbone of tapestries Sigismund Augustus, recovered from Russia. Between the castle he was also the residence of head of state. In the last decade of the last century building, which was hosted by the Museum Wawel Royal Castle – State Art Collection, has undergone a thorough re-preservation.
