As I mentioned earlier, we visited one museum in the Wawel Castle. We opted to check out the tapestries, which turned out to be a very interesting exhibit. Little did I know of this significant collection.
Apparently, several centuries ago, the Polish ruling dynasty commissioned several of these tapestries to be created, primarily in the Netherlands and Flanders. And as the years went by, they were considered national treasure, to the point that it had to be evacuated out of Poland during World War II. As we visited this exhibit, we learned about the history of these tapestries, how they were created, how little by little later kings had to pawn them off because they needed money somehow, and how they now are displayed here in Wawel Castle and is Europe's prime collection of tapestries.
When we opted to visit this collection, we didn't know what we were going to see. There was one ticket counter for all of the museums one can visit in the castle, so I just walked up there and said that I wanted to see the interior of the palace, especially those that featured opulent furniture. After all, that was my stereotypical castle experience so far. The person at the counter said that they don't have much, but the interior state rooms would be covered by the tapestry exhibit. I am glad that I went ahead, as this is a marvelous collection.
The tapestries typically depict either a Biblical scene, a mythological scene, a landscape and animal scene, or a grotesque scene. Sometimes, looking at these designs can give you nightmares.
Eventually we did see some aspects of former royal life here in the castle, as the tapestry exhibition allows visitors to check out the Royal State Rooms. They aren't the most opulent rooms out there that I have seen, unlike in other palaces and castles of Europe. But nevertheless, the tapestry collection is definitely formidable.
There are other museums that one can visit in Wawel Castle, but those are more art museums, and since I didn't want to have museum fatigue, we opted to save them for another day. After all, there's plenty of things to see in Kraków, so I can imagine going back here someday to check these other museums out.
