Przekazy ikonograficzne Jana Matejki jako źródło wiedzy o miejscowościach Zachodniej Galicji. Uwagi wstępne

The article concerns Jan Matejko’s work in the context of usefulness of his works for the process of revalorization of selected historical towns located in old Galicia, and their documentation. Jan Matejko, an eminent historical painter, made sketches and drawings of Galician towns during his numerous journeys. Some of them have survived until today, constituting the only form of documentation of frequently no-longer-existing architecture of those towns. Apart from documentary value, in his works the artist managed to convey their atmosphere which is disappearing in front of our eyes. His sketches and drawings depicting cultural landscape of historical towns in Western Galicia in Austro-Hungarian Empire could prove extremely significant to the process of their revalorization.