The major exhibition All the King’s Tapestries: Homecomings 2021–1961–1921, which fills two floors of Wawel Royal Castle, is a once-in-a-lifetime event. For six months all of the tapestries from the collection of Sigismund II Augustus that are preserved in Poland will be displayed in the castle. The king commissioned this magnificent tapestry collection, specifically designed to adorn Wawel Castle, from the leading Brussels’ workshops in the mid-1500s. Now, for the first time since Sigismund II Augustus’s day, the entire collection of 137 royal tapestries, ranging from monumental figurative textiles with biblical scenes, through verdures depicting animals and armorial tapestries, to small tapestries meant to cover furniture, will be on view. Many of the tapestries have never before been put on public display. This symbolic return of Sigismund II Augustus’s collection to the walls of Wawel Castle in 2021 coincides with the exact anniversaries of two earlier homecomings. The first, which took place sixty years ago, ended the decades-long odyssey begun with the tapestries’ dramatic evacuation from Wawel in the first days of World War II. The textiles traveled a circuitous and perilous route through war-torn Europe to finally find safe haven in Canada. Their return to Poland twenty years later was celebrated on March 18, 1961, with the grand opening of a new exhibition with the tapestry collection in the starring role.

The exhibition presents oriental art, chiefly Near Eastern decorative art, from the collections of Wawel Castle. Eastern art has played a significant role in the culture of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Carpets, banners, wall hangings, Persian and Ottoman Turkish arms and armor, are exhibited on two floors. The most splendid part of the collection are trophies from the Battle of Vienna of 1683 and historic objects associated with King John III Sobieski, such as three magnificent Ottoman tents. (The Wawel collection of Ottoman tents is the largest in Europe.) On the first floor, there is also a display of Chinese and Japanese ceramics.

The centerpiece of the exhibition Cranach at Wawel is one of the most precious works in Poland: Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Madonna Under the Firs from the Wrocław Archdiocese Museum. It is accompanied by another important picture also associated with the artist and his workshop, Virgin and Child with Dancing Angels, which was recently discovered at the Monastery of the Friars Minor Conventual (Conventual Franciscans) in Krakow. Three paintings from the Wawel Royal Castle collection round out the exhibition: Christ Blessing the Children and George the Bearded (deposit of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, Krakow) by Lucas Cranach the Elder and Portrait of a Young Man by Lucas Cranach the Younger. The works on view are representative of the principal tendencies and stylistic changes in the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder. A film about the celebrated painter and the story of the conservation of the works on view complements this intimate exhibition.

The exhibition occupies the Gothic and Renaissance rooms in the northwest corner of the castle that from the 14th century onward housed the Polish coronation insignia and the crown jewels of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. On view here are priceless objects from the original Crown Treasury, such as the coronation sword Szczerbiec, heirlooms of Polish monarchs that have survived war and pillage, and splendid gold and silver objects created by Western European and Polish goldsmiths. A large collection of weapons, armour, parade saddles, and equestrian equipment dating from the Middle Ages to the 18th century is displayed in the Armoury.

The picturesque karst cave—the lair of the legendary Wawel Dragon—is one of Wawel Hill’s more curious features. The route follows 81 meters of the cave’s total 270 meters of corridors and exits onto the Vistula Boulevards next to the “fire-breathing” Wawel Dragon, a statue by Bronisław Chromy (1972).

The “State Rooms,” the formal, public rooms of the palace, recall the interiors of the royal residence in the 16th and 17th centuries. They are decorated with magnificent tapestries from the collection of King Sigismund II Augustus, royal portraits, Italian and Dutch Old Master paintings from the 15th through 17th centuries, and Italian Renaissance furniture. Many of the rooms have colorful late-Baroque tile heating stoves that come from the Wiśniowiecki palace in Wiśnioweic in Wołyń (now Volhynia). Gilt-leather wall hangings adorn the Baroque-period interiors. Unique Renaissance portals with Gothic features, Renaissance stonework window frames, Renaissance and Baroque chimney pieces, and beamed ceilings have been preserved in many of the interiors.

The archaeological and architectural reserve located beneath the west wing of the Renaissance castle encompasses the relics of the Romanesque church of Saint Gereon and the Gothic church of Saint Mary of Egypt, as well as an ensemble of Romanesque architectural details.

The exhibition presents the rich and multifaceted work of Józef Wilkoń, the beloved illustrator, especially of children’s literature, painter, and sculptor. This is the world-renowned artist’s first exhibition at Wawel Royal Castle. Presented in three Wawel venues – the magnificent Renaissance Royal Gardens at Wawel Royal Castle; in the garden of at Pieskowa Skała Castle, perched on a cliff in Ojców National Park; and in the late 16th-century Manor House in Stryszów – the exhibition comprises a total of 52 sculptures and 42 works on paper. Curated primarily with our youngest visitors in mind, the exhibition is sure to delight children and adults alike. The admission ticket encompasses all three locations and includes a contest with special awards.