The story of this place
Rising over the Vistula in Kraków, Wawel was the coronation and burial place of Polish monarchs for centuries. Casimir III the Great rebuilt it in stone in the 14th century, and under the Jagiellons it became a Renaissance palace filled with Flemish tapestries and an arcaded courtyard modelled on Italy. In the adjoining cathedral, kings from Władysław the Short onward were crowned, and the royal crypts hold monarchs, poets, and national heroes including Kościuszko and Piłsudski. During WWII the Nazi governor Hans Frank seized Wawel as his residence. A dragon's den beneath the hill keeps alive the legend of the Wawel Dragon, slain — so the story goes — by a clever cobbler's trick.