The Slovak landscape of the second half of the 18th century in the light of Gottfried Stegmüller’s travelogues

The study deals with the travelogue Notes on the Land of the Slovaks, published in 1787 in a collection of short travelogues in Leipzig. The author of the travelogue goes by the pseudonym Gottfried von Rotenstein. Based on literary-historical research, we discovered that his real name is Gottfried Stegmüller, a pharmacist, and owner of the pharmacy U červeného raka in Bratislava. He was the author of a series of travelogues published in Germany. It is noteworthy that Stegmüller understood by the land of the Slovaks the area north of Bratislava to almost Žilina, i.e. the area of Považie. Stegmüller set out on his journey from Bratislava on 11 July 1785. He traveled through Senec, Trnava, Hlohovec, Čachtice, Nové Mesto nad Váhom, Piešťany, Trenčín and Dubnica. The author wrote in his travelogue that the majority of the population in this area was Slovak. The author described in detail the peculiarities of the Slovak people.