The River and the "Town without Stairs". The Elbe in the Promotive Strategies of the Poděbrady Spa and in the Perception of its Visitors
Abstract
The study analyses the role of the Elbe in various promotion campaigns of the Poděbrady Joint-Stock Company during the interwar era. Elbe was presented in local press and promotion materials mainly in three forms: as a picturesque element of the landscape, as a place for bathing and related cultural activities, and, finally, as a transportation route for trips to the surrounding countryside.
This study includes various personal testimonies from spa guests who stayed in Poděbrady, such as the Slavic scholar Miloš Weingart, the writer Věra Vášová-Váňová, publicist Jiří Mahen, Hittite scholar Bedřich Hrozný, historian Jaroslav Bidlo, lawyer Karel Laštovka, English scholar František Chudoba, otorhinolaryngologist František Ninger, literary critic František Xaver Šalda or the poet Stanislav Kostka Neumann.