Where Is Poland? | Wawel – tales from the crypt

Chapter 8

Wawel – tales from the crypt

Kraków was a mausoleum city and a 'panopticon of national mummies' where the spectres of the past intertwined with reality, populated streets and served as inspiration for artists. Polish rites such as major national anniversaries or funerals of important individuals served as remembrance rituals and political demonstrations.

Ignacy jan Paderewski speaking at the Grunwald monument in Kraków, 1910. Photo: Polona.pl

Teutonic knights strike back

The author Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński noted that the Kraków of his days was a city which lived in the past and celebrated anniversaries:

'I don’t doubt that celebrations are held everywhere, but they dissipate in streams of living life; this city lives on them as though on narcotics. In general, no other place lives through imagination, in such an unreal way, as Kraków. Life is a dream, gawping, taking an imaginary ride to all coronations.'

His words were echoed by the British writer and traveller Ménie Muriel Dowie, who visited Kraków in 1890:

'Everything modern, everything new, was hopelessly out of tone [in Kraków]; progress which tho desirable, may be a vulgar thing, would not suit her, and does not seem at home in her streets'

One of the expressions of living in the past were ostentatious celebrations of anniversaries, continually reminding the Poles of their country’s former glory. In 1883, Kraków marked the 200 years since the Battle of Vienna, with Jan Matejko creating a monumental painting of King John III Sobieski’s great victory. The painting was later taken from Kraków to be shown in Vienna. In 1891, Galicia marked the centenary of the Constitution of the Third of May, and in 1894 the centenary of the Kościuszko Uprising. In 1898, the centenary of the birth of Adam Mickiewicz was commemorated by erecting a statue of the bard in Kraków. The same year Brandes attended the unveiling of a statue of King John III Sobieski in Lwów. Each time these celebrations became political demonstrations, something unimaginable in the Polish lands outside of Galicia, contributing to the building of a shared national identity.

This obsession with history and anniversaries peaked in 1910 during the grand celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald, when combined Polish and Lithuanian forces had defeated the Teutonic Knights. The ancient battle served as a metaphor for the present-day struggle against Germanisation in the Prussian partition. Emperor Wilhelm II had said in Malbork in 1902:

I call upon you, knights of the German order, to wage a holy war against Polish impudence and Sarmatist arrogance.

It is estimated that during the three-day long Grunwald celebrations, Kraków's usual population of 100,000 swelled to include up to 150,000 visitors. They included Polish delegations from all corners of the globe and representatives of other Slavic nations. Most of the events were held outdoors. The city bustled with fairs, street performances and concerts, while members of the ‘Sokół’ Gymnastic Association created living images. During the unveiling of the monument commemorating the battle, funded by I.J. Paderewski, the assembled crowds sung Maria Konopnicka’s ‘Rota’ [The Oath] for the first time. The song went on to become a major symbol of Polish patriotism and resistance against the occupying powers.

Photograph from Adam Mickiewicz's funeral, Kraków, 1890. Photo: public domain

Funerary rites

During his stay in Kraków, Brandes visited Wawel Hill; in the late nineteenth century, the former residence of Poland’s kings was used as an Austrian barracks and formed part of the Kraków Fortress. It is right here that Poland’s historical heart beats, amidst the sanctuary of national and sacral traditions, between the castle and the cathedral.

The remains of past rulers, statesmen and national bards are interred in Wawel Chapel, including King Casimir the Great and King John III Sobieski, Tadeusz Kościuszko (leader of an uprising) and the poet Adam Mickiewicz.

Throughout the nineteenth century, the Crypt on the Rock at Kraków's Pauline Church held solemn burials of eminent Poles from all corners of the partitions and those returning from exile after their death, including writers, poets and artists. Each funeral was treated as a patriotic ceremony. Every deceased individual entered the pantheon of meritorious Poles, becoming a symbol of immortal – even if imagined – Poland.

Kraków’s symbolism as the cradle of the Polish identity and a city touched by a certain magic also featured in some of the most important works of Polish culture at the time, including Stanisław Wyspiański’s cycle of Wawel Plays (Acropolis, Bolesław Śmiały, Skałka) structured around Cracovian legends. As for many other artists and architects working at the turn of the twentieth century, for Wyspiański the idea of rebuilding and rejuvenating Wawel Hill as a symbol of the Polish culture and nation became an idée fixe. Wyspiański himself imagined it as the seat of Poland’s parliament (the Sejm), an Academy of Sciences and a National Museum, while its slopes were meant to host an amphitheatre and a great stadium. Wacław Szymanowski hoped to express his vision of Poland’s greatest rulers as a complex of sculptures, known as the Procession to Wawel; the idea never went beyond the design stage.