How are things in Zakopane? Władysław Matlakowski’s Wspomnienia [Memories] compared to turn-of-the-century accounts from PodhaleThe author introduces the figure of Władysław Matlakowski, a 19th-century “modern man” of many talents, today slightly forgotten despite his important contribution to science and culture in the second half of the 19th century. Chałubiński — awell-known Warsaw physician — became strongly assimilated into the Tatra landscape and people, when he was suffering from tuberculosis. That is why he became passionate about trying to save the highlanders’ culture and language. His memories of his journey and journal of his illness constitute avaluable source of information ab...