Photo: Barbora Kvapilová, Czech Radio
Czechs have a fascination with the American West that is unexpected and often baffling to foreigners not so familiar with some of the more niche aspects of Czech culture. But few have gone so far as Dáša Vaňková, a woman in a small Czech village who spends her days making made-to-measure cowboy-style saddles for customers at home and abroad.
From the Czech “tramping” subculture movement, partly inspired by the US “Wild West”, to the popularity among Czechs of German author Karel May’s series of novels about the fictional Native American hero Winnetou, Czechs have found aspiration and dreams of a simpler life in romanticised portrayals of the American West since at least the founding of the First Republic.
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