outside Italy." Financed by Sigismund I the Old, it was built between 1517 and 1533 by Bartolommeo Berrecci, a Florentine Renaissance architect, who spent most of his career in Poland. A square-based chapel with a golden dome, it houses the tombs of its founder and those of his children, King Sigismund II Augustus and Anna Jagiellon (Jagiellonka). Royal chapels and crypts The Wawel Cathedral has been the main burial site for Polish monarchs since the 14th century. As such, it has been significantly extended and altered over time as individual rulers have added multiple burial chapels. The crypts beneath the Wawel Cathedral hold the tombs of Polish kings, national heroes, generals and revolutionaries, including rulers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth such as John III Sobieski and his consort Marie Casimire (Maria Kazimiera); the remains of Tadeusz Kościuszko, the leader of a Polish national insurrection and Brigadier General in the American Revolutionary War; Władysław Sikorski, Prime Minister of the Polish Government in Exile and Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces; Marshal Józef Piłsudski, founder of the Second Polish Republic. Pope John Paul II celebrated his first mass in St. Leonard's Crypt. He considered being buried at the Wawel Cathedral also at one point in time, while some of the people of Poland had hoped that, following ancient custom, his heart would be brought there and kept alongside the remains of the great Polish rulers. (John Paul II was buried under St. Peter's Basilica, a papal burial site since antiquity, instead.) Crypt of National Poets Here are buried the national bards: Adam Mickiewicz (laid to rest there in 1890) and Juliusz Słowacki (1927). Notable burials Gallery See also Notes References External links Wawel Cathedral official website Roman Catholic cathedrals in Poland Cathedral Cathedral Basilica churches in Poland 14th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Poland Burial sites of the Jagiellonian dynasty Burial sites of the House of Sobieski Burial sites of the House of Vasa Burial sites of the House of Wettin Burial sites of the Piast dynasty