The Wawel Dragon Statue
Bronisław Chromy (1925 to 2017) · 1969, installed 1972
At the foot of the hill, where the Dragon's Den opens onto the river walk, a bronze dragon rears up on its hind legs and, every few minutes, breathes a burst of real fire. It is one of the most photographed objects in Kraków and probably the most loved. Children wait for the flame, adults pretend not to, and the crowd cheers every time. The sculpture was made by Bronisław Chromy, a Kraków sculptor who studied at the city's Academy of Fine Arts and became known for animal forms and monuments across southern Poland.
Chromy did not make a scaly storybook monster. His dragon is built from rough, lumpy bronze, with a long neck, a heavy body and seven flat heads that seem to be growing from one another, closer to an ancient hydra than to anything from a children's book. The surface is deliberately raw, and the creature looks as if it has just crawled out of the cave behind it. Walk around it and you will see how the forms shift from menacing to almost comic depending on your angle. The fire is fed by natural gas and was added when the sculpture was installed.
The statue was unveiled in nineteen seventy two, and since then the fire-breathing dragon has become a symbol of the city, appearing on souvenirs, in the annual dragon parade in June, and in countless family photographs. Sending a text message to a special number used to trigger an extra flame, a feature that made the dragon one of the first interactive monuments in Poland. It stands outside the museum's ticketed areas, so it can be enjoyed for free at any hour.
Did You Know? For years anyone could make the dragon breathe fire on demand by sending a text message to a special number.
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