Wawel Cathedral

Wawel Cathedral The Royal Archcathedral Basilica of Saints Stanislaus and Wenceslaus on the Wawel Hill (Polish: Królewska Bazylika Archikatedralna śś. Stanisława i Wacława na Wawelu), also known as the Wawel Cathedral (Polish: Katedra Wawelska), is a Roman Catholic church and Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Kraków, located on Wawel Hill in Kraków, Poland.

More than 900 years old, it is the Polish national sanctuary and traditionally has served as coronation site of the Polish monarchs. Karol Wojtyla, who in 1978 became Pope John Paul II, the day after his ordination to the priesthood offered his first Mass as a priest in the Crypt of the Cathedral on 2 November 1946, and was ordained Kraków's auxiliary bishop in the Cathedral on 28 September 1958.

The current, Gothic cathedral, is the third edifice on this site: the first was constructed and destroyed in the 11th century; the second one, constructed in the 12th century, was destroyed by a fire in 1305. The construction of the current one began in the 14th century on the orders of bishop Nanker.