19th-century Polish Cycling Magazine "Koło" Published in Lviv

"Koło. Pismo fachowe poświęcone sportowi kołowemu" (eng. The Wheel : Specialist Magazine on Cycling) is one of the first Polish magazines devoted to cycling, acting as an organ of the Lviv and Cracow Cyclists’ Club. It was published in Lviv on the initiative of Kazimierz Hemerling, an enthusiast of sport and physical culture. It was modelled on two German magazines: “Radfahrt Chronik” and “Stahlrad”.
From the historical point of view, particularly interesting are the cyclically published reports by the first cycling enthusiasts from individual touristic journeys, often across several countries, which contain numerous interesting observations of a landscape-ethnographic character, in particular about local residents’ daily life, regional peculiarities and noteworthy buildings and monuments. Seemingly, several of these routes are still attractive today. A specific image of the epoch presented in these accounts includes remarks about the mentality of people and their attitude to cyclists and the bicycle, which was still a great novelty at the end of 19th century and aroused contradictory opinions. Regular items in the magazine included a chronicle of cycling clubs activity, both from Poland and abroad, information about races, including multi-stage races which could be regarded as prototypes of contemporary cycling events included in the World Tour class. Interestingly, participants to these races rode newly developed bicycles, still without derailleurs and other similar facilities, while the events were held without technical support on paved roads or even more often on ordinary dirt roads. Newly established records, the latest inventions along with tourist and cycling publications (including maps) were also chronicled. As its integral part, each issue included advertisements constituting a review of novelties in cycling technology.
The periodical, although very interesting and featuring a neat layout and illustrations collapsed after four years due to a lack of subscribers. Its indefatigable founder, however, started to publish “Gazeta Sportowa” [“Sport Journal”] in Lviv, but after two years it shared the fate of “Koło”. The magazine is scattered around libraries across Poland, mostly only sequences of issues are available, some also in digital copies. The full set is found only in Lviv. Another thematically similar title was “Cyklista” magazine, published at the same time in Warsaw. Text in Polish.