hewn ashlars and trellis tracery; the interior has, for the most part, preserved its original aspect: a beautiful star-shaped cross-vaulting with keystones bearing the royal arms; the walls covered with paintings in Byzantine style, done by Ruthenian artists. In the northern side-aisle we notice, on entering, the lower part of the clock-tower, lined with tracery, which looks as if it had been built into the church. This forms the body of a chapel founded by Zbigniew Oleśnicki, but finished and fitted up only by Queen Elizabeth in 1502.
Want of space forbids us to dwell further on the Gothic architecture of the Wawel; we will therefore conclude by some general remarks on the row of chapels which surround the cathedral. Those round the choir were included in the original plan; although the dates of their actual erection are later, yet they were all organically fitted into the structure of the cathedral. Those on both sides of the body of the church, on the contrary, are only partly in systematic connection with the whole; part of them may be looked upon as originating in the unavoidable incorporation of remains of the older Romanesque building into the new Gothic structure.
Up to the fifteenth century the architectural development of the church ran on uniform lines, but from this time changes set in which disturb the original harmony. Thus, the western front as a whole was spoiled by the addition of the two side-chapels just described. Of course, these innovations were not without good consequences either; they introduced a picturesque element by this extraordinary mixture that arose from the juxtaposition of so many precious monuments of art of all periods and styles, which make up a perfect museum of ancient Polish civilization—a museum mystically sanctified by the glamour of religious associations.
It seems appropriate here to take a cursory survey of this round of chapels, and to characterize each of them by some chronological data. Turning from the chief portal to the right, we come to the following chapels in succession:—
I. The Holy Cross Chapel, built (as said before) in the years
