From the Dniester to the Bosphorus

Selected Functions of the Landscape in the Eyes of Polish Diplomats to the Ottoman Empire in the First Half of the 17th Century

Abstract

This article examines how early modern Polish diplomats perceived and interpreted the landscapes they crossed on their way to Constantinople. Drawing on travel diaries and diplomatic reports, it explores how natural and cultural space functioned not merely as a backdrop but as an active participant in diplomatic experience. The author distinguishes several key roles of the landscape: as a stage for ceremony, where hills, bridges, and borders became tools of symbolic hierarchy and political communication; as a witness to history, where terrain preserved the memory of past battles and deaths, including the 1621 Battle of Khotyn and the site of Hetman Żółkiewski’s fall, marked by his monument; as a realm of nature, alternately admired for its richness and feared for its wildness; and finally as a source of danger, where swollen rivers, treacherous Balkan passes, and even earthquakes threatened travelers.