Wawel Cathedral
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50°3′16.7″N 19°56′7.5″E / 50.054639°N 19.935417°E
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Wawel Cathedral (the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Stanisław and Vaclav) is a church located on Wawel Hill in Kraków, which is Poland's national sanctuary. It has a 1,000-year history and was the traditional coronation site of Polish monarchs. It is the cathedral of the archdiocese of Kraków. Pope John Paul II offered his first Mass as a priest in the Crypt of the Cathedral on 2 November 1946[1] and later as Pope considered being buried there.
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[edit] 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 Gembicki and created by Gisleni. The altar painting of Crucified Christ 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 St. Stanisław created between 1669-1671 after the previous one (donated in 1512 by King Sigismund the Old) was stolen by the Swedes in 1655 [3].
[edit] Chapels and burial chambers
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.
[edit] Sigismund's Chapel
Sigismund's Chapel, or Zygmunt Chapel, [4] ("Kaplica Zygmuntowska"), 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 King Sigismund I the Old, it was built in 1517-33 by Bartolomeo Berrecci.
A square-based chapel with a golden dome houses the tombs of its founder as well as of his children, King Sigismund II Augustus and Anna Jagiellonka.
[edit] Burials
See St. Leonard's Crypt.
[edit] Polish kings
- Władysław I the Elbow-high
- Casimir III the Great
- Jadwiga of Poland
- Władysław II Jagiełło
- Casimir IV Jagiellonczyk
- Jan Olbracht
- Sigismund I the Old
- Sigismund II Augustus
- Stephen Bathory
- Anna Jagiellonka
- Sigismund III Vasa
- Wladislaus IV Vasa
- John II Casimir Vasa
- Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki
- John III Sobieski
- Augustus II the Strong
[edit] Polish saints
[edit] Other notables
- Adam Stefan Sapieha
- Tadeusz Kościuszko
- Józef Piłsudski
- Władysław Sikorski
- Józef Poniatowski
- Adam Mickiewicz
- Juliusz Słowacki
- Cyprian Norwid (soil from his grave in France)
[edit] See also
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- Royal coronations in Poland
- Polish Crown Jewels
- Szczerbiec
- Poznań Cathedral
- Gniezno Cathedral
- St. John's Cathedral, Warsaw
[edit] References
- ^ Witness to Hope, George Weigel, Pg 81
- ^ (Polish) Wzgórze wawelskie wraz z siedzibą królewską at www.integracja.org
- ^ (Polish) Święci miesiąca Święty Stanisław Szczepanowski
- ^ a b CODART, an international network of curators of art from the Low Countries, [1] Accessed 2007-12-23
[edit] External links
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