Monika Váleková
Slovak travelling wireworkers, wandering far from home, stood out abroad because of their appearance and unusual work. Their way of life, which verged on vagrancy, their unappealing clothing and unknown language inevitably attracted attention. On the one hand, they provoked fear or ridicule, and on the other they aroused empathy and sympathy. They left to work in the farthest outposts of the Habsburg monarchy, as well as beyond its borders, and even outside the European continent.