Fossilised bones (Polish folklore 'Dragon Bones') hanging in chains at the main entrance to Wawel Cathedral, Cracow, Poland
The Wawel Dragon (Smok Wawelski) is a famous dragon in Polish folklore. Its lair was a cave (now a tourist attraction) at the foot of Wawel Hill, on the banks of the River Vistula. Pleistocene fossilised bones were found and carried to the cathedral in medieval times as remains of the dragon, which, it is said, was killed by being fed lamb laced with sulphur, so it exploded on drinking a hug quantity of water from the River Vistula to put out the fiery pains in its stomach. The bones have been identified as a whale mandible, mammoth tibia and skull of a woolly rhinoceros.
Size: 5472px × 3648px
Location: 'Dragon Bones', west entrance to Wawel Cathedral, Cracow, Poland
Photo credit: © robert harrison / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: black, bones, building, cathedral, church, cracow, dragon, entrance, fossilised, glass, katedra, krakow, mandible, marble, medieval, poland, relics, smok, stonework, view, wawel, wawelska, wawelski, whale, window
