Krakow Travel Guide

Almost six years lasted the renovation of two tapestries: “Babel Tower Construction” and “Ariadne and Bacchus Triumph”. On Monday, November 17 some people could admire those two masterpieces at a special event organized by the Castle. The majority of Krakow citizens and overseas tourists will be permitted to see the tapestries only in spring.
Both masterpieces were seriously damaged.

The “Babel Tower Construction” was made in Brussels for Polish King Sigismund August in 1550s. The first thing to do with the “Babel Tower Construction” was to wash it. The problem was there were only two places in Europe where you could do it so the tapestry traveled in 2003 to the Royal Tapestries Manufacture of the Wit Family in Melchen, Belgium. There, in a glass chamber the tapestry was put on the perforated metal sheet and with a use of moving nozzles that spread the water over it the masterpiece was gently washed. Only then the tapestry could come back to Krakow where four specialists worked on it.

Instead, more than ten thousand hours were needed to renovate the second tapestry - “Ariadne and Bacchus Triumph” that was created around 1700 and was bought only in 1998 from the Sapieha Family Collection. There were many fragments completely damaged and, morever, it was in XIX century when the masterpiece was cut into two parts and later on sewed again. There were two ladies who worked on it since 2002.