EN
For more than four centuries (16th-19th) Spain was the target of numerous and remote journeys undertaken by Poles. The Polish accounts of these voyages include many observations concerning Spanish borderlands. Initially, in the 16th and 18th centuries, Spain was perceived by Poles as the borderland of the Christian World protecting Europe from the as well the door to the New World. In the following two centuries however, the country tended to be assessed in negative categories and viewed as cultural backwater dominated by stagnation and backwardness. In the 18th and 19th centuries the French border in the Pyrenees, separating the country from Spain, was frequently referred to as the edge of the European civilization.