|
The centrepiece of the art collections in the Komnaty Krolewskie (State Rooms; Tues & Fri 9.30am-6pm, Wed, Thurs & Sat 9.30am-3pm, Sun 10am-3pm; 12zl, free on Wed) is King Sigismund August's splendid assembly of Flanders tapestries , scattered throughout the first and second floors. The 136 pieces - about a third of the original collection - are what remains from the depredations of tsarist, Austrian and Nazi armies. Outstanding are three series from the Brussels workshops of the "Flemish Raphael", Michel Coxie, the first and most impressive of which is a group of eighteen huge Old Testament scenes, featuring a lyrical evocation of Paradise and a wonderfully detailed tapestry of Noah and family in the aftermath of the Flood. The oldest tapestry in the castle is the mid-fifteenth-century French Story of the Swan Knight displayed in Sigismund the Old's first-floor bedroom. In the northwest corner of the first floor is a remnant of the original Gothic castle, a tiny two-roomed watchtower named the Cock's Foot Tower. In contrast to other parts of the castle, the rooms of the north wing are in early Baroque style, the result of remodelling following a major fire in 1595. Of the luxurious apartments in this section, the Silver Hall , redesigned in 1786 by Domenico Merlini (of Warsaw's Lazienki Park fame), achieves a particularly harmonious blending of the old architecture with period classicism. The state rooms on the top floor are among the finest in the building, particularly those in the east wing where the original wooden ceilings and wall paintings are still visible. A glance upwards at the carved ceiling of the Audience Hall at the southern end of the wing will tell you why it's nick named the Heads Room. Created for King Sigismund in the 1530s by Sebastian Tauerbach of Wroclaw and Jan Snycerz, only thirty of its original array of nearly two hundred heads remain, but it's enough to give you a feeling for the contemporary characters, from all strata of society, on which they were based. The frieze by Hans Durer, brother of the famous Albrecht, illustrates The Life of Man , a sixteenth-century retelling of an ancient Greek legend, while the magnificent tapestries of biblical stories - the Garden of Eden, Noah and the Tower of Babel - are again from the Coxie workshop. Back down the corridor is the Zodiac Room , ornamented by an astrological frieze, an ingenious 1920s reconstruction of a sixteenth-century fresco, as well as another series of biblical tapestries. The northeast corner towers contain the private royal apartments. The chapel , rebuilt in 1602, looks onto the king's bedchamber, while the walls of the study , with its fine floor and stucco decorations, are a mini-art gallery in themselves, crammed with works by Dutch and Flemish artists, among them a Rubens sketch and a painting by the younger Brueghel. The seventeenth-century Bird Room , named after the wooden birds that used to hang from the ceiling, leads on to the Eagle Room , the old court of justice, with a Rubens portrait of Prince Wladyslaw Waza. Last comes the large Senators' Hall , originally used for formal meetings of the Senate in the days when Krakow was still the capital, which houses a collection of tapestries illustrating the story of Noah and the Ark, another impressive coffered ceiling and a sixteenth-century minstrel's gallery still used for the occasional concert.
Your Tip for Komnaty Krolewskie
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to Komnaty Krolewskie - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to Komnaty Krolewskie - visit the main Komnaty Krolewskie forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the Komnaty Krolewskie webguide section below! Thanks.
|
