Krakow: Wawel castle

We explored a good portion of the Wawel castle, taking 3 different tours:  State rooms, Private Royal apartments, and the Treasury and Armoury.   Our guide was full of interesting facts.
*  The castle is approximately 500 years old and was designed by an Italian.  There are no interior hallways in the castle.  All of the rooms are connected by exterior walkways (in the Italian style).  Apparently the architect gave little consideration to how cold Poland is in the winter.  As with every castle I've ever toured, the King and Queen have their separate apartments.  In this case, the Queen's apartments were clear across the courtyard in an entirely different wing of the palace (not sure who preferred this location more...him or her?)

*  The castle had approximately 160 tapestries at one time, and approx 130 are still in tact and in the castle.  When they were woven, it took approximately 1 year to weave 1 sq meter.   As you can see by the size, it took many years to complete these large tapestries.  Many were taken out of the castle before the arrival of the Nazis, sent to Romania, then France, then Canada, where they stayed until 1962 when the Canadian government returned them (they were apparently reluctant to return them to communist Poland, but after Stalin died they softened their position).

Disclaimer:  I didn't actually take these interior photos.  As usual, photography was banned, so these are my pictures of the souvenir booklet.

 * There were many different styles in the different rooms, with period artifacts from across Europe.  Every room had a magnificent ceiling (wooden carved squares or gold embossed with paintings); and beautiful marble floors (Polish marble in different patterns).  Most of the rooms on the 2nd floor were tooled, dyed leather in quite fancy patterns (see below).

*  The doors throughout were newer art deco style dating back to the 1920s.  Beautiful inlaid wood.