Smocza Jama and the Wawel Dragon

In front of you is the Wawel Dragon, the Smok Wawelski, breathing fire towards the river every so often. This is Kraków's founding legend and one of the oldest in Poland.

1A legend that keeps changing heroes

The oldest written version is by the chronicler Wincenty Kadłubek, around 1200. In it, a monster terrorises King Krak's city, and the king's sons kill it by feeding it hides stuffed with burning sulphur. Then one brother murders the other to keep the glory. Centuries later, Jan Długosz credited Krak himself with the deed and placed the lair in a cave beneath Wawel. In 1597, Joachim Bielski added the hero everyone remembers today: Skuba the shoemaker, who left the dragon a sheep stuffed with sulphur. The thirsty beast drank from the Vistula until it burst.

2The cave and the statue

The limestone cave in the hillside already appears under the name Smocza Jama, 'Dragon's Den', in 1555, in the work of Marcin Kromer. The statue is by the sculptor Bronisław Chromy and was placed here in 1972; a gas mechanism makes it breathe flames every few minutes, to the delight of children.

The dragon changed slayers several times; the only thing that never changed was the place.

You've reached the end of the route. Follow the riverside path east and you'll be in Kazimierz in about fifteen minutes, a good place for dinner.

3What to look for

• The dragon's mouth: wait a few minutes and you'll see the flame.
• The limestone rock at its base, the same stone as the hill.
• Wawel's wall above you, over the cave.