Horské priechody starých ciest v hornej Trenčianskej a Turčianskej stolici v 13. - 19. storočí (1. část)

The paper deals with the identification and historical development of roads in the area of passes and saddles in the territory of the upper part of the Trenčín county (Trenčianska Stolica) and Turiec county (Turčianska stolica), defined in time from the first written sources to the end of the first half of the 19th century. Among the many mountain passes, the most important in terms of transport history - Jablunkov pass (Jablunkovský priesmyk), Strečno pass (Strečnianský priesmyk) with Rakytie saddle, Ľubochňa saddle (Ľubochnianské sedlo), the passes from Turiec to Banská Bystrica, Fačkov saddle (Fačkovské sedlo), Žiare saddle and Vrícke saddle - are discussed in more detail. The research is based not only on archival sources, but also on rich historical map documents and own research in the field. On this basis, we are trying to reconstruct whether the individual mountain passes were used permanently or whether the routes of the roads in them changed over time, what characterised them in the terrain, how intensively they were used, and what has survived from them to the present day, or after motor traffic required the construction of roads with different parameters. The paper thus attempts to answer the question of whether the movement of people and goods in the mountainous area of the north-western Carpathians was more restricted by the natural conditions of the mountains or whether man, dependent on simple means of transport, was able to cope easily with these obstacles.