The State Rooms constitute the largest and most impressive exhibition of Wawel Castle; the entrance is in the southeastern corner of the courtyard, from where you’ll ascend to the 2nd floor. Proceed through a never-ending chain of two-dozen rooms and chambers of the castle, restored in their original Renaissance and early-Baroque style and crammed with period furnishings, paintings, tapestries and works of art.
The two most memorable interiors are on the 2nd floor. The Hall of Senators , originally used for senate sessions, court ceremonies, balls and theatre performances, houses a magnificent series of six 16th-century Arras tapestries following the story of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel or Noah (they are rotated periodically).
The Hall of Deputies has a fantastic coffered ceiling with 30 individually carved and painted wooden heads staring back at you. Meant to illustrate the life cycle of man, from birth to death, they are all that have survived from a total of 194 heads, which were carved around 1535 by Sebastian Tauerbach. There’s also a tapestry with the Polish insignia dating from 1560.
