Skarbiec Koronny, Kraków

The Crown Treasury at Wawel Royal Castle displays surviving objects associated with Poland’s ruling dynasties. Its story spans royal coronations, medieval inventories and the catastrophic Prussian looting of 1795, when many insignia were melted down. The exhibition brings together surviving, recovered, acquired and donated works.

Inside Wawel Royal Castle, the Crown Treasury is an exhibition of objects left by Poland’s ruling dynasties. Its history reaches back to the first Polish royal coronation, held at Gniezno in 1025, although the insignia made for that ceremony have not survived. Kraków became the coronation city in 1320, when Władysław the Elbow-high and Queen Jadwiga received their crowns in the cathedral.

By 1475, the treasury inventory included three gold crowns, sceptres, orbs, a coronation sword, relic containers, Queen Jadwiga’s embroideries and swords captured after Grunwald. The drama of the treasury lies in what vanished. In 1795, after the fall of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Prussian forces looted it.

Nineteen of the most valuable royal insignia were taken, including crowns, sceptres, orbs, swords and reliquaries; they were melted down on the order of King Frederick William the Second. Gold from them became coinage in 1811, while the gems were sold. The present exhibition restores part of that broken inheritance through surviving objects, returned treasures, acquisitions and gifts.