Sylwia Filipowska

This work focuses on the topic of opposition between two categories – the Ancient beauty and the Turkish ugliness – which seems to be one of composite dominants in the 19th-century Polish relations from the journeys to the East. Because of limited size of the article this important issue is being considered on the basis of one example only – schematism of first impression about Istanbul. Many Polish travellers who decided to voyage to the East visited Istanbul, the most accessible for European people Eastern city. Some of them were forced to stay in Istanbul at least few hours, because they had to change the ship on their way to Middle East (generally making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem), others wanted to see various antiquities or were simply interested in experiencing the atmosphere of mysterious East. No matter what was the reason of visiting Istanbul, all Polish travellers have exactly the same impression of the city: they admired the beauty of Istanbul from a distance and felt disappointed with ugliness of streets and buildings after entering the city centre. This schematism of first impressions, analysed on the basis of interesting quotations from eleven Polish travellers’ memories, which account for the value of the article, is connected with opposition between the ancient beauty and the Turkish ugliness. Coming closer to the Istanbul travellers looked upon the city as if it was still Constantinople, relic from the past, full of various and beautiful antiquities, but after entering the centre they had to accept the reality – Istanbul was not a Greek property any more, few centuries ago it had been conquered by Turks, who changed the city according to their own needs and aesthetic taste. Even if most of travellers were interested in experiencing something new and unknown in their culture, being educated on European classicism, they could not refrain from from making constant comparisons between ancient beauty and Turkish ugliness of the city.