The transformation of cartographic normality in tourist maps of the Teschen Beskids (1905–1947)

This article examines the transformation of cartographic normality in tourist maps of the Teschen Beskids between 1905 and 1947, a period marked by major political and institutional changes in Central Europe. Cartographic normality is understood as the set of conventions that determine which elements are treated as self-evident and which are explicitly explained within cartographic language. The analysis is based on a qualitative comparison of successive map editions, with particular attention to map legends and the categorization of tourist huts. The results identify three main phases. Before 1918, tourist huts appear as named but uncategorized elements within a landscape understood as a memory space. During the interwar period, cartographic normality shifts toward an explicitly articulated plurality, in which national and institutional affiliation becomes a systematically expressed category. Beginning in 1940, this model disintegrated through semantic reduction and subsequent homogenization, culminating in the complete removal of national distinctions in the 1947 edition. The article demonstrates that cartographic change cannot be interpreted solely as a reflection of political borders, but rather as a transformation of cartographic language through which political and institutional meanings are internalized and stabilized.