Wawel Castle and Stained Glass Museum Fill Krakow Day Four
Our fourth and regrettably last full day in Krakow was filled with two activities, visiting the Wawel Castle and a visit plus a workshop at the Stained Glass Museum. The former, while definitely the thing that many more visitors to Krakow undertake, did not hold a candle to the latter. But we will get into that in a moment.
Much of what I found disappointing about the Wawel Castle has to do with logistics. I had to compare it unfavorably to our visit to the Prague Castle. In Prague, we bought a city pass, which entitled us to see most of the sections of the Castle for free (there was one section we wanted to see that was not included, but you were able to buy tickets at the door, and it wasn’t heavily attended, so no worries). We walked into the massive courtyard of the Prague Castle, walked into the ticket office, showed our passes, and had our tickets and were on our way in no more than two minutes.
In Wawel Castle, you can’t buy a package ticket – you have to buy individual tickets to each part of the castle complex you want to see. And tickets are timed, and there is a limit on how many people may see each exhibit (and the numbers of visitors differ from exhibit to exhibit), so if you are unlucky, what you want to see won’t be available by the time you get to the front of the line. And oh, such lines. The castle complex opens at 10am, and we were there by 10:15, and the line was already so huge that we had to wait in line for 90 minutes to buy our tickets.
We could’ve spent the whole day at the Castle I suppose, and bought tickets for whatever was still available when we got to the head of the line. But I wasn’t interested in everything (for example, the Dragon’s Den by all appearance is something designed for kids), and besides, we had plans – our workshop at the Stained Glass Museum was set for 3pm. So we had to come up with a plan that would make the best use of the time left over after waiting in line all that time, which turned out to be only about 2 hours.
We decided to see the Cathedral, and then see the Da Vinci painting “Lady with an Ermine” exhibit, and the State Rooms.
The Cathedral was crazy crowded. Plus, if you take the free entrance option as we did, you only get to see about two-thirds of the building. But, after waiting in line 90 minutes to get our day’s sightseeing started, the last thing I wanted to do was wait in another line. So, we saw what we saw.
While Therese held our place in line, I did get a chance to see the grounds a bit. It is lovely inside the Castle, that’s for sure.
After spending a few minutes in the Cathedral, it was almost time for our visit to the Da Vinci painting exhibit. While Krakow’s main art museum is being renovated, this painting is being shown at the Castle, and I definitely think that is a good thing. Having a separate admission for this means the number of people in the gallery is large, but not the kind of crushing circus it is to visit the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. The first room had lots of information about the painting, and then the second room had the painting. We waited patiently for a good view, viewed, and walked away very satisfied.
After that we had like a half hour wait until our time to see the State Rooms.
So I took some photos and waited. Like the Da Vinci painting exhibit, there is no photography allowed inside the State Rooms. That’s too bad, because they were quite beautiful.
For our lunch, we elected to get some packaged sandwiches from the outdoor cafeteria in the middle of the Castle grounds.
Our Lunch of Sandwiches at Wawel Castle Cafe
For packaged sandwiches that had been lying around for a couple hours, these were pretty good. And in retrospect, I wish that I had followed the advice written on the sandwich label.
‘Slow Down’ – a Worthy Sentiment
I was concerned about getting to our Stained Glass workshop on time, that I didn’t relax and enjoy our time at the Castle. But the atmosphere was just not conducive to relaxing for me. I have been to many busy sights in the last several years – for example, Chartres Cathedral and Mont Saint Michel – surrounded by tons of people, where I didn’t feel half as on-edge as I did at Wawel Castle. I just think it could be done in a much better way, so that you could spend your time enjoying it, rather than waiting in line.
So we left, took a taxi to the Stained Glass Museum, and what do you know, we were early!
Since we were early, our hostess Ursula, with whom I had been corresponding and who is the museum’s manager, brought us into the cafe and set us up with a complimentary beverage and snack. And she gave us a brochure that included, among other things, a description of where stained glass from the workshop exists in Krakow. For that is one of the most fascinating things about this place: that while there is a museum there, it is mostly a working stained glass studio or factory, with ongoing projects, some of them quite large, being worked on during your visit.
We started by meeting our guide and teacher for the afternoon, Katerina. She was very kind and patient, and we learned a lot from her. Above you can see some of the incredible art we saw in the museum section of the studio. In addition to those finished pieces, we also got to walk through the two floors of the workshop, seeing the large-scale drawings and works-in-progress.
This being a Krakow operation, the city’s favorite son, the former Pope John Paul II, was represented in a couple of the commissions that the studio was working on at that time. Katerina invited me to take up a brush and lighten up the forehead of a painted head. While I can only guess that that head was created specifically for us students to work on, nevertheless I was a little intimidated and wanted to do a good job.
Having now seen lots of incredible stained glass and heard a bit of the process, we were now prepared to make our own stained glass. What????? Over the next hour and a half, we amazingly did just that. Yes, we were guided by Katerina, and another artist from the studio, Roland, joined us to give us a hand with our work. But in each case, they would demonstrate what we were supposed to do, and then leave us to do it on our own. I am astounded and so pleased that we did so well with our projects!
We selected pieces of glass, sanded the glass, applied strips of tin to the outside of the glass, and then soldered the three pieces together. Voila! Then Therese said, can we put a hook on them and make them into Christmas tree ornaments? The lead artist of the studio was brought in to consult on this new idea! But with his help, a half an hour later, we had two stained glass Christmas ornaments to take home with us!
To finish off our visit, we met up with Ursula, who packed our stained glass away while we had one last beverage.
Stained Glass Museum’s Manager Ursula Packing up Our Stained Glass Ornaments
And before we left, we got a better view of the stained glass in the museum’s front door, which had the museum’s logo at its heart.
We left the museum on a cloud, and walked back toward the main square, encountering a dragon decorating a building along the way.
Dragon Decorating Outside of Krakow Building
Inspired by the brochure describing what Krakow buildings have stained glass made in Krakow, I thought it would be fun to explore a couple of those. We had already seen the amazing works in the Saint Francis Church. Now I decided we should have dinner at Hawelka Cafe right on the square, mainly because they were supposed to have some stained glass inside.
The stained glass in Hawelka was more conventionally pictorial than what we saw at the church, but it was delightful nevertheless. We sat outside for our dinner, and while it was a little chilly, blankets were provided, and we had a very very good meal. My entree of a half duck served with cherry sauce and roasted potatoes was just superb.
To complete our day, we explored one more selection of stained glass, which was conveniently located adjacent to where we would get our taxi. At Plac Wsystich Swietych are three large and impressive works embedded in a wall abutting on the square.
Stained Glass Windows in Plac Wsystkich Swietych
And with that, another extraordinary day in Krakow came to a close!
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