Pieskowa Skala Castle | Cracow, Poland

[Koniaczeq]

Pieskowa Skala Castle was first mentioned in 1315 as a stone castle funded by King Kazimierz the Great. Expanded in the fifteenth century, it was turned into a stately Renaissance residence in the following century and fortified with new Italian style ramparts in the early seventeenth century. It has been a museum since 1966.

The castle's architecture and interiors are particularly noted for their mannerist gargoyles, the two-storey viewing loggia from the late sixteenth century, mid-seventeenth century chapel, late Gothic artillery tower and mid-seventeenth century ramparts, with their curtained entry gate.

All objects on display at Pieskowa Skala come from the holdings of the Royal Wawel Castle. The medieval room is particularly noted for a late fifteenth century Dutch sculpture of an unidentified saint, a Flemish verdure tapestry from ca. 1500, painting of Jan of Jazdow's epitaph by a member of the Krakow school from about 1450, panels of the altar from Krakow's Na Skalce Church with scenes from the life of St. Stanislaw and a Dutch sideboard from ca. 1500. The masterpieces in the Renaissance Room include a collection of Italian majolica, a Spanish decorative writing cabinet (vargueno) and a painting of St. John on the Island of Patmos by J. Patinir. The Baroque Room boasts a collection of paintings by the Dutch school, with a portrait of an obese man by Bartholomeus van der Helst, a collection of Italian and German chests richly inlaid and decorated with intarsia, and two Flemish tapestries woven designed by Jacob Jordaens. In the late Baroque room, particularly noteworthy are a splendid French bed decorated with silver thread embroidery, a series of tapestries showing the life of Alexander the Great and made in Aubusson for Franciszek Salezy Potocki, and an Elblag (Elbing) wardrobe encrusted with ivory that had been dyed green.

Permanent exhibitions: Changing Styles in European Art from the Middle Ages to the Early Eighteenth Century (second floor). Work is underway to extend the exhibition to the second floor, where objects from the eighteenth century to the 1920s would be displayed. An exhibition devoted to the history of the Castle itself is also being prepared.

[Brett]

8
I like it, looks like its been pieced together over hundreds of years!

[Matthieu]

8 too

[Raine]

8,5

[Istanbullu]

8/10

Very nice but seen better ones. It's garden is also very beautiful!

[DamienK]

7/10

[therock]

7.5/10

[zonc]

8\10

[Fabio]

7.5/10

it looks ok

[Sinjin P.]

8/10

[-Corey-]

7/10

[drfeelgood17]

6/10

[Animo]

7/10

[Phobos]

8.5/10

[LuckyLuke]

8,5/10

[Reflex]

8.5/10.

[forvine]

8.5/10

[marpa]

9/10

[Mosaic]

7/10

[TwItCH]

nice location but needs a renovation!