Wawel Castle

We took three tours that covered a good portion of the castle:  State rooms, Private apartments, and the treasury and armoury.  We only had 3 other people on the tour with us, so it was great to be able to go through the rooms without feeling crowded. The tour guide had all sorts of interesting facts:

*The castle was built approximately 500 years ago.  It was designed by an Italian who built it in the Italian style.  There are no interior halls.  All of the rooms are connected by exterior walkways. (Not ideal for cold Polish winters!).  As with all of the other castles I've seen, the King's and Queen's apartments were separate.  In fact they were in different wings of the building, separated by the court yard (not sure who found this arrangement more desirable...him or her).

* There were originally about 160 tapestries in the castle.  Approx 130 still remain.  It takes one year to make 1 sq meter of the tapestries, so as you can see by the pictures, these were many years in the making.  Before the Nazi occupation, they were smuggled out through Romania, then to France, and eventually to Canada, where they remained until 1962 when they were returned to the Polish government. (The Canadians were apparently reluctant to return them to the communists, but after Stalin died they softened their stance).

* Note:  No pictures were allowed inside, so these are my pictures from the souvenir book.

The rooms had a variety of period pieces from all over Europe.  The ceilings were beautifully made, either of carved and painted wood,  or with paintings and golden woodwork.  The floors in every room had a different pattern of Polish marble.  There were tapestries in every room, and the walls in one were were all tooled, painted leather (see below).  The doors were in the art deco style and date from the 1920s.