Wege nach / durch Schlesien ("Travel Routes")
A trip to Silesia is always worthwile! How true this has been for more than 200 years and how travel has changed in that time is shown in an exhibition by HAUS SCHLESIEN in the Lower Silesian Cistercian Lubiąż Abbey.
The exhibition "Wege nach / durch ” ("Travel Routes") in the corridor of the monastery prelature is dedicated to Silesia as a travel destination and the development tourism. Here, in the Lubiąż Abbey, itself a tourist attraction, visitors, who are also here as travelers, encounter various aspects of tourism and trade in the changing region of Silesia.
Silesia
deu. Schlesien, ces. Slezsko, pol. Śląsk
Silesia (Polish: Śląsk, Czech: Slezsko) is a historical landscape, which today is mainly located in the extreme southwest of Poland, but in parts also on the territory of Germany and the Czech Republic. By far the most significant river is the Oder. To the south, Silesia is bordered mainly by the Sudeten and Beskid mountain ranges. Today, almost 8 million people live in Silesia. The largest cities in the region are Wrocław, Opole and Katowice. Before 1945, most of the region was part of Prussia for two hundred years, and before the Silesian Wars (from 1740) it was part of the Habsburg Empire for almost as many years. Silesia is classified into Upper and Lower Silesia.
With the improvement of the transport network in Silesia through the construction of roads at the beginning of the 19th century and the development of the railway network that soon followed, the arduous travel time to and from the region was shortened and it became known as a destination for leisure and relaxation. From a tourist’s point of view, the landscape gained a new quality. Recreational travel, formerly reserved for the wealthy and the aristocracy, became a more middle-class activity, available to a wider stratum of the population. The most popular destinations were the spa resorts in the mountainous regions, whose scenic beauty also attracted hikers and winter sports enthusiasts. The numerous towns became popular travel destinations in all seasons, while new means of transport such as excursion steamers and postal bus routes opened up the regions even further.
