The Wawel Dragon

Beneath Wawel Hill in Krakow, in a limestone cave above the Vistula river, there once lived a terrible dragon, the Smok Wawelski. By day and night it ravaged the land around the city, devouring livestock, burning homes and demanding young girls to sate its hunger. King Krak offered a rich reward and his daughter's hand to whoever could slay the beast, and brave knights came and died in its fiery breath. At last a humble cobbler's apprentice named Skuba solved the riddle no sword could. He stuffed a lamb's skin with sulphur and pitch and left it before the cave. The greedy dragon swallowed the bait whole, and a burning thirst seized it. It rushed to the Vistula and drank and drank, unable to stop, until at last it drank so much that it burst. The clever boy won the princess and the kingdom, and the city of Krakow flourished on the hill. The dragon's cave, the Smocza Jama, can still be visited below the royal castle, where a metal sculpture of the beast breathes real fire for delighted crowds.