The rooms are noticeably higher and more spacious in relation to those on the lower floors, and were intended for state functions. Sessions of the sejm and senate, royal audiences, and wedding receptions and balls were held in these grand rooms. Among them: Envoys Hall – one of the two largest rooms in the palace (also known as the Heads Hall, for the coffered ceiling is adorned with 30 sculpted heads) and Senator’s Hall – here were held the state openings of the sejm and sessions of the senate, the upper house of parliament.

Tapestries commissioned by Sigismund Augustus are the most valuable treasure of the Renaissance rooms, and the only art object preserved from the original interior decoration. Woven in Brussels in the third quarter of the 16th century, they depict  biblical and grotesque scenes, and the coats of arms of Poland and Lithuania. There are also valuable paintings, Italian furniture, predominantly from 16th century Tuscany, and Polish royal portraits.

Wawel Royal Castle has significant holdings of Islamic and, broadly speaking, Eastern art. Although this collection was not part of the historic furnishings of the royal residence, it allows us to envision the role that artworks of Eastern provenance played in the culture of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.