Editing Tatra Mountains (section)

=== Borders and hiking ===

With the collapse of the [[Austrian Empire]] in 1918 and the creation of Poland and Czechoslovakia, the Tatra Mountains started to be divided by international border. This brought considerable difficulties to hikers, as it was illegal to cross the border without passing through an official border checkpoint, and for many decades there were no checkpoints for hikers anywhere on the border ridge. The nearest road border crossings were [[Tatranská Javorina]] - [[Łysa Polana]] and [[Podspády]] - [[Jurgów]] in the east, and [[Suchá Hora]] - [[Chochołów, Lesser Poland Voivodeship|Chocholów]] in the west. Indeed, those who did cross elsewhere were frequently fined or even detained by border police of both countries. On the other hand, the permeable border in the Tatra Mountains was also heavily used for cross-border smuggling of goods such as alcohol, tobacco, coffee, etc. between Poland and Czechoslovakia. Only in 1999, more than 80 years after the dissolution of the Austrian Empire, the governments of Poland and Slovakia signed an agreement designating several unstaffed border crossings (with only irregular spot checks by border police) for hikers and cyclists on the 444&nbsp;km-long Slovak-Polish border. One of these border crossings was created in the Tatra Mountains themselves, on the summit of the [[Rysy]] peak. However, there were still many other peaks and passes where hiking trails ran across the border, but where crossing remained illegal. This situation finally improved in 2007, with both countries accessing the [[Schengen Area]]. Since then, it is legal to cross the border at any point (i.e. no further official checkpoints were designated). Rules of the national parks on both sides of the border still apply and they restrict movement to official hiking trails and (especially on the Slovak side) mandate extensive seasonal closures in order to protect wildlife.