The year 2005 marked the hundredth anniversary of the recovery of Wawel Castle from Austrian hands: an act returning the Castle and the Senators Tower was signed on 7 August 1905. Restoration was inaugurated almost immediately since in the wake of the second Austrian occupation (from 1846) the Castle did not resemble its former Jagiellonian-era magnificent self. In connection with the anniversary ceremonies, held under the honorary patronage of Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of the Republic of Poland, the Royal Castle on Wawel Hill prepared two large-scale temporary exhibitions: 'Wawel restored to the nation' and 'The Crown of Poland. Wawel motifs in Polish art 1800-1939'; it also issued a number of publications presenting the Wawel collections: '100 najpiekniejszych obrazów z kolekcji Zamku Królewskiego na Wawelu' (100 Most Beautiful Paintings from the Collections at the Royal Castle on Wawel Hill) and 'Renesansowe glowy wawelskie' (Renaissance Wawel Heads) as well as a book summing up the hundredth anniversary of conservation on Wawel Hill: 'Zamek Królewski na Wawelu. Sto lat odnowy 1905-1939' (The Royal Castle on Wawel Hill. A Hundred Years of Renewal 1905-1939). The 'Wawel restored to the nation' exhibition (March-June 2005), featured in the western wing of the Castle, was presented in six parts: 'The royal residence (eighteenth century) and the Austrian citadel (nineteenth century)', 'The recovery of the Castle', 'The beginning of renewal (1905-1914) under the supervision of Zygmunt Hendel', 'Wawel revived in artists' visions', 'The Castle prepared for fulfilling its functions' and 'The Royal Castle on Wawel Hill and its surrounding in old photographs'. The shows depicted the grandeur of Wawel Castle as a royal seat, its fall after the Hill and Castle were adapted for the purposes of Austrian army barracks and transformed into a citadel, the successful Polish campaign to recover the Castle, as well as the enormous efforts made by the whole nation to resurrect Wawel Castle and reinstate its former splendour after more than a hundred years of servitude. The exhibition also demonstrated the accomplishments of the first two architects who headed the restoration of the Castle: Zygmunt Hendel (1905-1914) and Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz (1916-1939). Alongside the 300 displayed exhibits - paintings, sculptures, graphic art, historical documents architectural drawings, elements of the original Renaissance masonry and photographs, an additional attractive highlight was a stereoscopic panorama specially restored for this occasion. The second show - 'The Crown of Poland ...' (held in July-October 2005) portrayed the impact exerted by Wawel Castle upon artistic creativity and the role played by this royal residence in Polish art during the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. The exposition amassed more than 200 examples of painting, sculpture, graphic art, and the crafts, which enabled the visitors to appreciate the influence of Wawel Castle upon the oeuvre of numerous Polish artists as well as the place occupied by Wawel Hill, its monuments, and associated legends in the hearts of all Poles.
The article includes references to studies of the Lubranka Tower (also known as the Senatorska Tower, Olbramka, Wolbromka or the Treasury Tower), the condition of this building, and the progress of its conservation. The first studies of the tower were undertaken in 1881-1882 by Tomasz Prylinski and in the early 20th century by Stanislaw Tomkowicz. Between 1965 and 1969 the Board for Restoration of the Wawel Royal Castle carried out repairs to the crowing part of the building. Analysis of the history and architecture of the tower was included in more extensive elaborations. Studies of the tower were not resumed until 1999, when they were undertaken in connection with its planned conservation. The author discusses results of these investigations, presenting successive stages of the building and refashioning of Lubranka; he also analyses its architectural form and describes some technological details. The next part of the paper is devoted to a description of the condition of the tower prior to its conservation and a discussion of the main points of the conservation guidelines accepted during the meeting of the Conservation Commission on 14th May, 2001. Finally, the article discusses the conservation of the stone- and brickwork and architectural details.
The Renaissance rebuilding of the Royal Castle on the Wawel Hill in Kraków was designed and in its major part carried out (1502-1516) by Francesco from Florence, and finished under the leadership of Bartolomeo Berrecci (1516-1536) with the participation of German builder Benedicte, called 'Sandomierzanin' (of Sandomierz). During this rebuilding there were made dozens of portals which in a special way combine the late-Gothic and Renaissance forms and 35 of them, existing nowadays, are recognised on a European scale as the unique achievement of assimilation of Renaissance art in Poland. An unusualness of each portal is manifested by the combination of two, stylistically opposite parts: late-Gothic framing and Renaissance cornice, with the stripes of classical ornaments. Despite the contrast, both components – distinctly separated – make a consistent and balanced compositional whole. As is indicated by the research so far, the stylistic hybrid in the form of ‘Wawel type' of portal seems to have had no predecessors neither in Poland, nor in the neighbouring or more distant countries.The complex patterns of architraves in the lintels - the most characteristic motif of the Wawel portals - seems to have derived from the last great buildings of late-Gothic in Swabia, especially from the Burkhard Engelberg lodge, building the Church of St. Ulrich and St. Afra in Augsburg. The authors of the Wawel portals drew upon the patterns of stonework rather than the painting and graphic art. They adopted few models of lintel design which they developed and enriched with an unusual invention in almost as many variants as the number of portals. The master who probably transferred the idea of masterly stonework from the circle of the Burkhard Engelberg lodge to the Wawel Hill was 'magister Benedictus almanus', called 'Benedykt Sandomierzanin', a king's builder. The 'Wawel type' portals are present in all his buildings of the royal residences: at Piotrków, Sandomierz and Kraków (the eastern wing). As an originator of this remarkable artistic compromise should be regarded the architect Francesco - he had to employ non-Italian speaking stonemasons, who despite being excellent at their work, lacked the knowledge of the forms other than late-Gothic. He therefore did not force them to learn the new repertoire, but let them do what they were best at doing. He introduced only one - yet significant - element into their framing: a salient feature of the cornice - easy to construct, and harmonising them with the Renaissance character of the interiors and galleries.
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