Traditioanl Culture of the Tatras in the Czech Periodical Press, Publications, and the Carnival Tradition up to the Beginning of the 20th Century

The study characterises the interest of the Czechs in the Tatras up to the beginning of the 20th century, primarily in the pages of newspapers and magazines, but also as part of carnival celebrations. This interest is interpreted through the themes that were central to Czech travellers, who then reported on them in Czech periodicals. The most prevalent theme was shepherding, which as mentioned by almost all travellers who wrote about the Tatras. A less common theme was the motif of the Tatra mountain guide, which Czech travellers began to notice in detail from the last third of the 19th century onwards. The fact that Czech interest in the Tatras continued into the late 19th and early 20th centuries, especially on the Galician (Polish) side, is evidenced by the inclusion of the theme of the mountain centre of Zakopane and the Polish Tatras as the main title of the Sokol “Šibřinky” in 1902.