Bratislava: capital of Slovenia

Bratislava has its quota of fine buildings; concert halls, churches, city hall etc. In addition to the grandeur there are unkept parks, foot paths in need of maintenance and graffiti a plenty.

It is impossible to completely compare cities, but we did buy similar items in the same supermarket chain in Bratslavia and regional Austria, and Bratslavia was considerably cheaper. The same applied for coffee shop and restaurant meals.

 

The Church of St. Elizabeth is known as "The Little Blue Church" because of its colour. The Catholic church is built in Hungarian Art Nouveau style.

Certainly cute and different!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many tourists see Bratislava as a half day city tour from the huge river Danube River cruisers. The Danube flow is very fast and we saw river barges and Russian built hydrofoils (the same 50 year old models as operate in St. Petersburg; below, left bottom picture) struggling against the flow. Any trip up stream must be very slow!

From our appartment we climbed a steep hill through a rich villa quarter including embassy residences (close to the centre of Bratislava) to a park known as Slavin. It is the burial ground of thousands of Soviet Army soldiers who fell during World War II while liberating the city in April 1945 from the occupying German Wehrmacht units and the remaining Slovak troops who supported the fascist government.

The cemetery includes 6 mass graves, and 278 individual graves of 6,845 Soviet soldiers. The centre piece is 50m high and can be seen from most of the city.

World War 2 German "pill boxes" remain in the park. The monument is in Stalinist architecture and reminded me of many in Russia and other former Soviet countries, complete with the happy dancing maidens bearing garlands of flowers and ribbons proclaiming their nationalistic fervour.

Devin Castle's historic significance is indicated by its appearance on Slovak money and postage stamps. It has a commanding view of the confluence of the two significant rivers that form part of the country's borders, the Danube and the Morava.

It's river-side location was historically strategic for travellers, and major trade routes; north- south and east - west. The Castles medieval history includes several empires, undergoing multiple makeovers including the building of a well in the central courtyard. A cup of water took 7 seconds to splash!

 

Napoleon ordered it ruined, as part of his military neutralisation of the region in 1809.

The way it was then and now! We used the old ferry crossing over the Morava to cross back into Austria. When the Soviets left Austria in 1955, this was a front line crossing between east and west for several decades. The Austrian check point had to be perched high over flood levels. Slovakia, then part of Czechoslovakia and very much a puppet state in the Cold War, had its control point located on the high opposite bank of the Morava.

Just outside Bratislavia and close to Austria is a very large VW factory. I have not seen larger.

In the pix an Audi SUV is transported from one area of the complex to another. Volkswagen, Skoda, SEAT, Audi, and Porsche Models are produced.

Peugeot /Citroen and Kia Motors also manufacture in Slovakia. Capitalism is now the force!