“The longed-for Karlsbad”, “the Lonely Cave” — the image of the spa resort in the light of Romantic-Era diaries

Abstract

Karlsbad — an exclusive 19th-century resort — was a frequent destination for Polish travelers, both for health reasons and recreation. However, the first half of the “age of steam and electricity” did not leave many tracks of stays. This article is dedicated to three ego-documents from the Romantic era that have been preserved in manuscript form: the diaries of two sisters, Symforoza and Florentyna Krzyżanowska — Kraków natives and daughters of a Jagiellonian University professor — as well as the famous Warsaw actor Alojzy Żółkowski. While the Krzyżanowska sisters saw their summer trip to Karlsbad as a long-awaited adventure breaking the monotony of daily life, for Żółkowski — a homebody who rarely left Warsaw — the solitary journey “for his health” was an unpleasant necessity. This, in turn, significantly influenced the nature of his account.