Coronation vestments
From the centuries when the cathedral crowned Poland's kings.
Ludvig14 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Diliff — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Petar Milošević — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Petar Milošević — CC BY-SA 4.0
The cathedral first — it is the heart of Polish history, holding the royal tombs and the Sigismund Bell. Then the state rooms if art interests you. The hill and courtyard are free and worth walking even without entering anything. The treasury and cathedral museum are additions for those staying longer.
Karol Wojtyła, archbishop of Kraków, elected pope in 1978 and the first non-Italian pope in four and a half centuries. His support for the Solidarity movement and his visits to Poland in the 1980s are regarded as factors that weakened the communist system. His standing in Poland is national as much as religious.
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A museum of the treasures of Wawel Cathedral, in a building adjoining the cathedral on the hill, named after John Paul II, who was archbishop of Kraków before his election as pope. The cathedral was the place where Polish kings were crowned and buried from the fourteenth century, and that explains what the museum holds: coronation vestments, liturgical vessels, ceremonial swords, pieces from royal tombs, and objects spanning centuries of Polish royal history. Among its most significant items are objects belonging to Karol Wojtyła from his years serving in Kraków before 1978. A practical point that matters to visitors: Wawel hill is not one site on one ticket but several separate ones — the cathedral, the state rooms, the royal apartments, the treasury, this museum and the Dragon's Den — each with its own ticket and route, and some capped in number and sold out early. Decide before climbing what you want to enter, and buy tickets first. The hill itself and the courtyard are free.
From the centuries when the cathedral crowned Poland's kings.
Objects from his years serving in Kraków before his election.
Some Wawel sites are capped in number and sell out early in season.
Wawel hill, beside the cathedral