Case file · Folklore / legend
The Wawel Dragon
Wincenty Kadłubek's chronicle (about 1200) is the first to tell of a dragon in a cave under Wawel Hill in Kraków that demanded cattle until the sons of King Krak killed it.
1200 CE · 50.05, 19.93 · status: legend
The account
In Kadłubek the princes feed it hides stuffed with burning sulphur. A later version, in Marcin Bielski's chronicle of 1597, gives the credit to a shoemaker's apprentice, Skuba, whose sulphur-filled sheep makes the dragon drink until it bursts. The limestone 'Dragon's Den' under the castle, and large bones hung at the cathedral door, were shown as proof.
The sceptical view
The bones at the cathedral are from Pleistocene animals such as a mammoth; the story is a dragon-slaying founding legend common across Europe.