Sigismund's Chapel

{{Short description|Funerary chapel at the Wawel Cathedral}}

{{Expand language|topic=|langcode=PL|otherarticle=Kaplica Zygmuntowska na Wawelu|date=January 2025}}

File:Church of St. Stanislaus and St. Wenceslaus, Sigismund chapel, Wawel 1, Old Town, Kraków, Poland.jpg

File:Church of St. Stanislaus and St. Wenceslaus, Sigismund's Chapel (R) and Vasa Chapel (L), Wawel 1, Old Town, Kraków, Poland.jpg Chapel (left)]]

Sigismund's Chapel ({{langx|pl|kaplica Zygmuntowska}}) is a royal chapel of the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków, Poland. Built as a funerary chapel for the last members of the Jagiellonian Dynasty, it has been hailed by many art historians as "the most beautiful example of the Tuscan Renaissance north of the Alps".{{cite book |last1=Nimmrichter |first1=Johann |last2=Kautek |first2=Wolfgang |last3=Schreiner |first3=Manfred |date=2007 |title=LACONA 6 proceedings |isbn=978-3-540-72129-1 |page=125}}{{cite book |last=Rouček |first=Joseph Slabey |date=1949 |title=Slavonic encyclopaedia |publisher=Philosophical Library |page=24 |quote=The much admired Sigismund Chapel, called 'the pearl of the Renaissance north of the Alps' by foreign scholars.}} Financed by King Sigismund I the Old, it was built in 1519–33 by Italian architect Bartolomeo Berrecci.

A square-based chapel with a golden dome houses the tombs of its founder King Sigismund, as well as King Sigismund II Augustus and Anna Jagiellon. The inner sculptures, stuccos and paintings were designed by some of the most renowned artists of the age, including the architect Berrecci himself, Georg Pencz, Santi Gucci and Hermann Vischer.

Gallery

File:Poland-01779 - Anna's tomb (31970703362).jpg|An elaborate and gilded tombstone of Queen Anna Jagiellon

File:Dome of the Sigismund Chapel in Cracow.jpg|Coffered dome of the chapel photographed in 1951

File:Kraków Wawel Chapel Window.jpg|Window decoration and a spire sit atop the dome

File:Kraków - Wawel - Orzeł Zygmunta Starego.jpg|Polish white eagle with Sigismund I the Old's monogram "S"

File:Nagrobek Zygmunta Starego i Zygmunta Augusta.jpg|Tomb monument of Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II Augustus in the Chapel

See also

References