Sarkofag Jana III Sobieskiego, Kraków

Here is the Tower of Jan the Third Sobieski, set at Wawel Castle’s northwestern corner and counted among its four towers. Its tall masonry and compact roofline give this corner of the castle a guarded, watchful character. Royal architect Giovanni Trevano designed it; he also designed the nearby tower associated with Sigismund the Third Vasa.

The Sobieski tower was completed by sixteen twenty, after a castle fire had prompted rebuilding work. Its present roof form is lower than the earlier lofty cap, preserved in a seventeenth-century view. Much later, restoration replaced decayed roof timbers and covering, finishing in nineteen fourteen with a copper-clad roof. The name honours Jan the Third Sobieski for his work renewing the castle.