TOURISM AND TOURIST INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE POLESIE VOIVODESHIP IN THE 1920S–1930S

Abstract

The article shows the specifics of tourism development and the level of tourism and related infrastructure in the territory of the Polesie Voivodeship in the interwar period. Polesia was a kind of tourist region in the interwar Polish Republic, which gave its name to the Polesie Voivodeship with its center in Brest (then Brześć nad Bugiem, previously Brest-Litovsk). The voivodeship, being one of the largest by area in the entire Second Polish Republic, at the same time had a minimal railway network, an insignificant length of paved roads and extremely poor condition of unpaved roads. Low population density, long distances between localities, and a tangled network of small, often uncharted roads and trails that rapidly changed under the influence of seasonal fluctuations in water levels made it almost impossible to hike and cycle through the region without local guides. This made the region difficult to access for mass visitors and left opportunities only for the development of tourism based on existing communication routes, in particular water tourism. Almost all the heritage sites and localities of interest to tourists in the region could be visited by traveling along water routes. The only route on which there was an opportunity to get acquainted with the region by own car was the Brest – Kobryn – Bereza Kartuska – Iwacewicze highway and further to the border of Poland with the USSR. At the same time, the southern part of the voivodeship was literally permeated with a network of regular steamship communication. However, the most common means of tourist communication in Polesia in the 1920s and 1930s was a kayak. The centers of tourism in the voivodeship were mainly cities (primarily Pinsk and Brest, as well as others), which were the administrative, economic and cultural centers of the region. It was in them that most of the accommodation facilities (hotels, inns, furnished rooms, camp sites, etc.) and public catering (restaurants, cafes, taverns, etc.) were concentrated.