Outdoor running has a positive impact on human health. Our study attempted to address the issue of what other aspects motivate people to take up running. We were particularly interested in the landscape and its significance at the stage of decision making regarding participation in races. Our goal was also to identify the landscape features of routes, which determine their popularity. We conducted surveys among running participants and spatial analyses using GIS tools. Great landscape values of running routes can contribute to the activation of a running society, especially those including women and city dwellers. The high diversity of the landscape of cross-country routes, especially in terms of their relief and land use, significantly affects their high landscape rating. Route profiles and running challenges are as important as landscape values. The landscape that runners observe during long-distance runs affects their regeneration and motivates them to finish competitions. Runs organised in mountain and foothill landscapes, characterised by a wide variety of landscapes, are particularly attractive for runners. This study illuminates how the enchanting tapestry of landscapes not only fuels the passion for outdoor running but also underscores the intricate relationship between humans and their surroundings. The results enable us to establish the key principles for designing new running routes that support runners during their exertion.

Contemporary villages of the mountain region are subject to uncontrolled structural and spatial transformations, which cause deformation of centuries-old spatial systems of high cultural and natural value. The aim of the study is to confront the opinions of the inhabitants and experts regarding the condition of the cultural landscape of the villages in south-eastern Poland. This area belongs to the Carpathian region of Central Europe. The historical and economic conditions of the studied region, related to the functioning in the post-war period, and then its breakdown and the development of the free market economy, constitute an interesting background for the proposed research. Local communities still remembering the period of difficulties related to the period of systemic transformations, are currently experiencing a relative prosperity, many difficulties related to the period of systemic transformations, are currently experiencing a relative prosperity, which is also expressed in a completely new, previously unknown way of managing the landscape. Investments implemented in villages are associated by the inhabitants with the improvement of the standards and quality of life. They assess them rather positively. An expert assessment of these landscape transformations indicates their negative dimension and the risk of losing timeless values. The discrepancy in the assessment of experts and local residents creates difficulties in the protection of the rural landscape. Therefore, high-quality visual landscape features among rural residents is necessary from the point of view of its multi-faceted and effective protection. Local initiatives and actions in the field of industry policy should play a significant role in this respect by consolidating the images of a harmonious landscape in the public awareness.

An eight-hectare forest reserve in the centre of the metropolitan area in SE Poland was investigated for the effects of its management in relation to its purpose—protection of old Quercus robur L. trees. This local issue corresponds to a wider debate on the role of urban forests in contemporary societies. The study embraced (1) oak stand history—stand mapping and dendrochronology, historical maps’ analysis; (2) vegetation trends—undergrowth and ground layer analysis; and (3) visitors’ opinions on the reserve’s use—interview. The dendroecological analysis corroborates the landscape’s history emerging from the 1700s–1900s maps. The reserve is a feral park established in the early 1900s on the abandoned agricultural, partly wooded landscape. Under the current regime, shade-tolerant trees continue gaining advantage over older oaks, preventing their regeneration, whilst the herb layer, due to the reserve’s isolation remains poor and polluted by alien species. The non-intervention approach does not allow the reserve’s objective to be met. We recommend the restoration of features of semi-open silvopastoral landscape. This would correspond with both local eco-history and the dominating preference of the interviewed visitors. Such “bio-cultural refugia” should become key knowledge centres of the natural, cultural, and economic importance of the “working rural landscape”, fostering urban care for the countryside.

The south-eastern region of Poland is a culturally interesting area, where there are relatively many harmonious rural landscapes, with the open landscape (fields, tree stands) and the residential buildings consistent with the historical character. Podkarpackie villages, despite their interrupted construction patterns associated with the Second World War and the Communist-era Poland, still retain the traditional character thanks to the wooden housing, sacral and public buildings present in their structure. The research undertaken by the author (since 2015) makes us realize that wooden objects also exist in the Podkarpacie cities are threatened by strong investment pressure and lack of fixed construction patterns. The presented research focuses on Rzeszów city, the capital of the Podkarpackie province. The primary aim of the research was to determine the characteristic features and ways of functioning of 19th-century relics of wooden secular buildings in Rzeszów. The scope of the study included the analysis of documents registering historic objects of the region, including wooden objects. Field studies documenting wooden architecture in Rzeszów, which was created in the 19th century, were documented in the form of pictures and drawings. The collected materials were analysed in terms of preserved, original building materials, formal solutions and details. The transformations concerning the studied objects and their landscape context have been identified. The implemented activities show a significant saturation of the spatial structure of Rzeszów with historic wooden architecture. XIX-century buildings determine historical rural arrangements in the landscape of the developing city and document the construction traditions of the region. Construction with simple forms, generally devoid of decorative elements and details, presents regional patterns resulting from the then economic, cultural and natural conditions. The studied collection of Rzeszów wooden houses preserved in its original location does not contain objects valuable from the perspective of the monument conservator. These objects have largely undergone transformations and modernizations disturbing their original form. The conducted research allows to determine the manner of functioning of these buildings in a completely new cultural and spatial context. The author of the article tries to answer the following questions: How do traditional rural houses from the 19th century function in the contemporary "capital of innovation"? Is it worth taking steps to protect and study these objects?

The Ongoing Existence of Partition Borders in Practices, Collections and Landscape: In Search of Common Points of Sociology, Museology and Landscape Architecture The subject of this paper is the phenomenon of the so called phantom borders – former political borders, presently non‑existing, however influencing the social environment. Concentrating on practices, collections and landscape we attempt to integrate three disciplines: sociology, museology and landscape architecture to study today’s manifestations of these boundaries separating the territories of Poland for 123 years. Recognizing the perspective of borderscaping we assume (phantom) borders as complex and multilevel phenomena thus requiring holistic approach reflected in the application of aforementioned disciplines during intensive ethnographic studies of former Kingdom of Poland and Kingdom of Galicia borderland communities. We argue that successful integration of methods can be based on the assumption of materiality as a common element of interactions, collections and space, making possible – in the second step – a study of meanings invoked by these tangible components and then a recreation of material‑symbolic systems shaping everyday life and festive times of phantom‑borderlands communities.