Poland
Fire Breathing Dragon Protects
Wawel Royal Castle
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According to Wincenty Kadłubek, the Wawel dragon appeared during the reign of King Krakus. The dragon required weekly offerings of cattle, if not, humans would have been devoured instead. In the hope of killing the dragon, Krakus called on his two sons Lech and Krakus II. They could not, however, defeat the creature by hand, so they came up with a trick. They fed him a calf skin stuffed with smoldering sulfur, causing his fiery death. Then the brothers argued about who deserved the honor for slaying the dragon. The older brother killed the younger brother Krakus, and told others that the dragon killed him. When Lech became king, his secret was revealed, and he got expelled from the country. The city was named in recognition of the brave and innocent Krakus.
A metal sculpture of the Wawel Dragon, designed in 1969, by Bronislaw Chromy, was placed in front of the dragon's den in 1972. The dragon has seven heads, but frequently people think that it has one head and six forelegs. To the amusement of onlookers, it noisily breathes fire every few minutes, thanks to a natural gas nozzle installed in the sculpture's mouth.
