Interior view
by BERRECCI, Bartolomeo, Photo
The Renaissance architectural style appears in Poland under the late Jagiellon dynasty, and especially in the reign of Sigismund I (1506-1548), whose wife came from the Sforza family of Lombardy. The rebuilding of his Wawel Castle (1507-36) in Krak�w was begun by the Italian Francesco della Lore and continued by Bartolommeo Berecci of Florence. It presents a blend of local Gothic and 15th-century Italian architecture. The great courtyard has three stories of loggias; the two lower ones, with semicircular arches on squat Ionic columns, suggest the new style, but the much taller upper story, with the steep roof supported by excessively slender posts, betrays a medieval wooden tradition.
The photo shows the courtyard.
View the ground plan of Wawel Castle, Krak�w.