Human traces on the Wawel Hill date back at least 50,000 year. It was a Bronze Age trading and crafts centre and the rulers of Poland took it over a thousand years agoi. King Sigismund I the Old (1506-1548) brought in the best artists to create the imposing Renaissance palace-cum-castle that has survived, little changed, till now, and it apparently served widely as a model for other monuments to conspicuous consumption throughout the region.