Dragon's Den
In the Footsteps of the Wawel Dragon
A legendary cave beneath Wawel Hill.
History
The Dragon's Den is a karst cave within the rock of Wawel Hill, linked to the legend of the Wawel Dragon. The Wawel caves were already known to Jan Długosz, and the first written mention of this particular one dates from the first half of the 16th century. In 1565 Zygmunt II August had the openings walled up, because vagrants and beggars were living in them. Not long afterwards the cave was in use again, and it housed a tavern, which Jan Andrzej Morsztyn described in a poem. In 1918 Professor Szyszko-Bohusz used a carved-out well shaft to build a winding staircase of 136 steps, and electric lighting was installed. Today the tourist route is 82 m long and leads through three chambers, with the exit outside the castle walls, close to the bed of the Vistula.
Did you know?
The little pools in the parts of the cave closed to visitors are home to a rare crustacean, the Tatra well shrimp (studniczek tatrzański).