The Lost Wawel

This permanent exhibition, opened in 1975, presents archaeological discoveries,  fragments of  architecture and the history of the development of Wawel Hill from the Middle Ages to modern times. It is located in the basement of a building which encloses the arcaded courtyard from the west. The archaeological and  architectural collection created here, comprises the remains of the Renaissance royal kitchens, the remnants of the Gothic castle, and above all, the four-apsed Rotunda of the Blessed Virgin Mary –later re-named the Rotunda of SS. Felix and Adauctus. The spatial arrangement was designed by Adam Młodzianowski.

 

The exhibition begins with boards located in the hall presenting progressive phases of  building developments on Wawel Hill and a model of the hill in the 18^th century. The exhibition also includes a virtual computer reconstruction of selected early Romanesque and Romanesque buildings of Wawel, based on archaeological, architectural, illustrational, photographic and conservational evidence. The buildings are shown on Wawel Hill surrounded by wooden and earth fortifications and with cottages within.

The archaeological and architectural collection includes the Renaissance royal kitchens with preserved foundations and the remains of the Gothic castle. In the northern wall of the room the south western apse of the Rotunda of the Blessed Virgin Mary can be seen. The temple is laid out in a quatrefoil pattern, with the rounded annex of a supposed stairway in the south. The apses form four half circles adjoining the central cylinder. The Rotunda is embedded in flat split calcareous sandstone bound with lime mortar. The walls of the Rotunda are 3 to 7 metres high and 1 metre thick. Adolf Szyszko-Bochusz’s  reconstruction reveals that the building’s height was 11 metres. The Rotunda dates to a period between the 9^th century and the year 1000. Originally it was probably a chapel of the prince’s residence. It served its religious function under the name of the Rotunda of the Blessed Virgin Mary until 1241 – when, on the orders of Prince Konrad Mazowiecki, it became part of the fortifications. King Casimir the Great restored the partially destroyed building, incorporated it into the Gothic castle, and founded the prebend of SS. Felix and Adauctus. The Rotunda served a religious function until the building of the royal kitchens c. 1517 when it was adapted as a residential quarter and silver warehouse. In 1806 it was severely damaged by being incorporated into the field hospital by the occupying Austrians. The Rotunda was discovered and reconstructed by A. Szyszko-Bohusz in 1917. Around the church, to the west there are remains of the Gothic defence wall and remains of the foundations of the building from the mid 14^th century. There are also archaeological traces from the time of the building of the rotunda and its functioning as a Gothic castle.

This part of the exhibition is located in the 17^th century royal coach-houses, and in the 16^th century ‘little kitchen’. Objects from the early and late Middle Ages, which come primarily from archaeological excavations on Wawel, are displayed in glass cases against the background of original walls and cobblestones. There are everyday objects such as various pots, wooden, bone and horn tools, weapons, ornaments, a selection of coins, floor and stove tiles, and examples of Romanesque and Gothic sculpture. The models of major Romanesque and Gothic buildings on the Hill complete the exhibition.

In the last two rooms of the southern part of the building architectural details from the Renaissance palace are displayed, and a collection of Wawel stove tiles from the 16^th to the 18^th centuries. In the lapidarium there are items from the workshops operating in Wawel during the renovation of the Castle in Renaissance times (c. 1500 – c. 1540). Bases and capitals of columns, pilaster and window parapets, a lintel frieze, a step from a staircase with relief decoration, a cartouche with the Jagiellonian Eagle, a Renaissance altar from Wawel Cathedral (the ‘Zatorski altar’) and a statue of David from the external elevation of Sigismund’s Chapel, created in the workshop of Bartolomeo Berrecci (deposited by the church in Grodzisk near Skała) are on display.