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Wawel Cathedral (Royal Archcathedral Basilica of Sts Stanislaus and Wenceslaus) is the Polish national sanctuary and traditionally has served as coronation site of the Polish monarchs as well as the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Krak�w.
The first cathedral (from c. 1020, destroyed) was begun as a basilica with a transept and a square east end raised above the crypt, following Saxon models. The second cathedral (c. 1090-1142; destroyed), late Ottonian in type, was built to the west of its predecessor as a Romanesque double-ended basilica with four towers. The crypt of St Leonard survives as one of the best-preserved Romanesque interiors in Poland. This cathedral was replaced by the present structure (c. 1320-64), partly modelled on Wroc³aw Cathedral, and it immediately became the coronation church. It was built as a basilica with a four-bay chancel separated from a short, three-bay nave by a transept. It has a square east end with an ambulatory, and two west towers flank the aisles. The easternmost chancel bay has triradial vaulting, an unusual feature that shows links with the Cistercian architecture of Bohemia and Moravia.
A series of chapels was gradually constructed all around the building. The last two to be built, Holy Trinity Chapel and Holy Cross Chapel, flank the west entrance and preserve much of their original Gothic structure. The Holy Cross Chapel was founded in the third quarter of the 15th century as the funerary chapel of Casimir IV (reg 1447-92) and his wife. It has a star vault and three bosses carved with coats of arms, as well as rich wall painting (1470) by artists from Pskov, on the walls and on the vault. Inside the chapel is the red marble tomb of King Casimir IV (1492), a masterpiece by Veit Stoss, who followed the example of four earlier royal tombs in the nave and placed the recumbent effigy of the King on the sarcophagus, beneath an intricately carved canopy.
A Gothic treasury (1481-1500) was built at the north-east corner of the cathedral, and in the early 16th century the three medieval towers were heightened to balance visually the recently enlarged castle. From the 16th century the Gothic chapels were gradually replaced with new structures (e.g. the Sigismund Chapel, 1517-33) or partly remodeled; for example the Lady Chapel became the burial chapel of King Stephen Bathory (reg 1576-86).
The cathedral remained the site of royal coronations and burials after the court moved to Warsaw, but the interior changed dramatically as extensive work was undertaken in the Baroque style. One of the most significant projects was the Vasa Chapel, founded in 1598 by Sigismund III in place of a Gothic structure just west of the Sigismund Chapel and built mainly in 1664-67. Externally it is a copy of the Sigismund Chapel, but the interior, attributed to Giovanni Battista Gisleni (1600-1672), has walls faced with dark marble and Ionic pilasters that flank niches with allegorical figures and a statue of St Sigismund. In the late 17th century and the 18th many of the chapels were again remodeled or rebuilt in late Baroque, Rococo and Neo-classical styles. From the late 18th century the building fell increasingly into disrepair. A thorough restoration of the cathedral was begun in 1895, and it continued intermittently into the late 20th century.
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