Friday, August 16, 2013

Smok Wawelski

Smok is Polish for 'dragon', the one that once lived below Krakow's Wawel hill. Smok  is the most most famous Polish dragon. Now on the hill, there is a castle, and a cathedral. The cathedral is where the bishop and martyr Stanislaus Szczepanowski once was, and now his relics are there in a silver sarcophagus.

Smok was a fire breather, that enjoyed eating ruminant livestock (cows and sheep). Smok would also kill men who tried to kill Smok. The king promised his daughter to the man who would rid Krakow of the beast. She wished to be wed, but the dragon was not forthcoming. A shoemaker's apprentice had a slaughtered sheep stuffed with sulphur and sewed shut. Smok ate the bait, and exploded. The wedding took place.
Supra: we see Smok, a wall painted as Wawel Hill, and part of the two steeples of St. Stanislaus.
On East 65 in a Cleveland's Southeast (formerly) Polish neighborhood a topiary (and sculpture) of Smok is growing into place. This was a vacant lot, many buildings that were in the city are no longer. Here, a little park was formed. The dragon's head has been there a short while, and it took some time before that to have presentable shrubbery of some size, and form. Still a section before the end of the tail is absent, a tree is at the tip. The dragon's head had two long, thin, copper ears; it has one now.
his footprints

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