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4 unusual facts about Wawel Cathedral


Casimir I the Restorer

To strengthen his rule he re-created the bishopric in Kraków and Wrocław and erected the new Wawel Cathedral.

Smocza Jama

A side passage, discovered in 1974, leads under the St. Stanislaus and St. Wenceslaus's Cathedral.

Symbols of Kraków

Another popular symbol of the city is a stylized crowned letter K based on that found on old city seals and, most famously, on the door to the Wawel Cathedral.

Wawel Cathedral

Both of these pre-pontificate events were depicted in the first half of the 2005 U.S. TV miniseries, Pope John Paul II in which Cary Elwes played the younger Wojtyla.


Polish Golden Age

In architecture, Renaissance and Mannerism prevailed (see Renaissance in Poland, Mannerist architecture and sculpture in Poland), with best examples being the Sigismund's Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral, tenement houses, churches and town halls in Poznan, Krakow, Zamosc, Kazimierz Dolny, Lublin, Lwow, Gdansk and other cities, as well as castles (Pieskowa Skala, Krzyztopor, Krasiczyn, Baranow Sandomierski and others).

Stanisław Ryłko

He was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Karol Wojtyła (later Pope John Paul II) on 30 March 1969, in Wawel Cathedral, and then did pastoral work in Poronin until 1971.


see also