Legend about Wawel Dragon

It was long, long time ago… On

the Wawel Hill by the River of

Wistula was raised big wooden

castle in which King Krak was

living together with his daughter

Wanda.

Virgins were permanently

disappearing from Cracow and

really nobody knew exactly what

had happened with them at that

time.

But one day the Cracow inhabitants

found out that a fire-breathing and

dangerous dragon lived under the

Wawel Hill in a dark den.

Terrifying dragon was

devouring sheep and ram and

after them he demanded human

victims. As finally he wanted to

eat the princes.

On the Cracow Square

Wanda wasn’t seen there any more,

she was seating in her chamber

and was crying and just crying…

King Krak had called all the

knights which would have

been able to fight the

dragon, but none of them

could have done it.

The dragon was belching of fire,

swinging his tail, and his sharp

claws was tearing metal armour of

knights.

And as you can imagine King Krak

said:

"Whoever kills this dragon, will

marry my beautiful daughter!"

Many courageous knights

had lost their lifes trying to get

rid of the dragon.

Finally a young shoemaker Kuba

came along with a good idea how

to fight the dragon.

He took a sheep fur, filled it with

pitch and sulphur, sewed it up and

laid this false sheep in front of the

dragon's cave before the sunset

came.

Hungry monster - dragon noticed

delicious looking sheep, rushed

immediately at it and devoured it

greedily.

Very soon the dragon became incredibly thirsty because of the pitch and

sulphur burning in his throat and belly. For this reason the dragon ran fast

to the Vistula shore and began to drink a lot of Vistula water. And the

dragon drank, and drank so much water that he finally burst with a loud

bang.

In this way the city of Cracow was

freed from the evil Wawel

Dragon. And as you can imagine

the shoemaker got his promised

reward - he married the daughter

of Prince Crac - Wanda. And from

the pieces of dragon’s skin he

made shoes for Princes.

Dragon's Den - Dragon's Lair

According to the legend the Dragon's

Den is a cave of 81 meters (266 feet)

which can be visited at any time of the

year accept of winter time. You can

reached the Dragon's Lair by using a

staircase leading from the Wawel Hill

into the den. In front of the cave's

exit is located a dragon skulptur,

breathing reall fire every three

minutes.

The end