DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31076#0068
damaged by fire. He employed a fashionable Italian architect
Giovanni Trevano, who covered the roofs with copper and
added Baroque domes. The halls were embellished with stucco
decorations, as well as painted ceilings with gilded frames. One
of the chambers was covered with silk and decorated with silver
eagles that hung from the ceiling and were put into motion by
currents of air.
A dabbler in painting and goldsmithery, King Zygmunt III
was a renowned patron of artists. In the main street in Cracow,
he founded a splendid Jesuit church that was dedicated to St.
Peter and St. Paul. Its shape imitated the famous Baroque
church in Rome, del Gesu.
Beyond this patronage, however, Zygmunt III also made a
far-reaching change in the life of Cracow. He left the old capital,
the place of royal coronations and burials, and transferred his per-
manent residence and the capital to Warsaw. The reasons for this
change were both practical and personal. Situated in the center of
the large state spreading to the north and east, Warsaw was a
much more convenient seat of the Seym and the govemment.
Furthermore, the king still dreamed of returning to the
Swedish throne, and Warsaw was much closer to Stockholm
than Cracow. He rebuilt the old Gothic castle of the Dukes of
Mazovia to suit his purposes and to satisfy the needs of the
Commonwealth. From this point forward, Warsaw would be the
place where the fate of the state was decided.
Upon King Zygmunt III’s death in 1632, his elder son,
Wladyslaw, was elected king in an age of war in Europe,
including the particularly cruel Thirty Years War (1618-1648).
58
Giovanni Trevano, who covered the roofs with copper and
added Baroque domes. The halls were embellished with stucco
decorations, as well as painted ceilings with gilded frames. One
of the chambers was covered with silk and decorated with silver
eagles that hung from the ceiling and were put into motion by
currents of air.
A dabbler in painting and goldsmithery, King Zygmunt III
was a renowned patron of artists. In the main street in Cracow,
he founded a splendid Jesuit church that was dedicated to St.
Peter and St. Paul. Its shape imitated the famous Baroque
church in Rome, del Gesu.
Beyond this patronage, however, Zygmunt III also made a
far-reaching change in the life of Cracow. He left the old capital,
the place of royal coronations and burials, and transferred his per-
manent residence and the capital to Warsaw. The reasons for this
change were both practical and personal. Situated in the center of
the large state spreading to the north and east, Warsaw was a
much more convenient seat of the Seym and the govemment.
Furthermore, the king still dreamed of returning to the
Swedish throne, and Warsaw was much closer to Stockholm
than Cracow. He rebuilt the old Gothic castle of the Dukes of
Mazovia to suit his purposes and to satisfy the needs of the
Commonwealth. From this point forward, Warsaw would be the
place where the fate of the state was decided.
Upon King Zygmunt III’s death in 1632, his elder son,
Wladyslaw, was elected king in an age of war in Europe,
including the particularly cruel Thirty Years War (1618-1648).
58