Polish Travelers in Greece in the 18th and at the Beginning of the 19th Century

Abstract

In the article it is shown that the first Polish travelers started visiting the land and islands of Greece as soon as the Middle Ages, but it was only in the modern times that several dozen accounts appeared that described the travelers' stay in that part of the Mediterranean Sea basin. In the 18^th and at the beginning of the 19^th century journeys to Hellas were not so popular as in the previous centuries. This resulted first of all from the inner situation of the Polish Republic that experienced a period of political and military breakdown.

During the 18^th century only about a dozen people from the Polish lands reached Hellas, and only a few of them left written accounts of their travels in the form of memoirs and letters. Political interests of the Polish emigrants living in the Apennine Peninsula fall on the break of the 18^th century. Those activists wanted to settle military men in the lands of Peloponnesus and Ionian Islands and in this way to form the Polish-Greek Republic. However, intensive colonization in this area was not possible because of political changes in this part of Europe.