On Saturday the 5th April 2025, we woke up and had breakfast in our hotel. Checked out and left our cases at the hotel as we had a 8pm flight. Time for one last look about Budapest.
We decided to walk back into the city as we wanted to visit the New York Café made famous by Instagram. Dubbed the most beautiful café in the world.
As we got there we had other ideas, the queue was stupidly long. To pay through the nose for an expensive coffee wasn't worth the wait. It did long amazing inside through the windows though.
New York Café is celebrated for its breath-taking architectural splendour, with an interior that boasts ornate ceilings, gilded stucco, grand chandeliers, and luxurious furnishings, all housed within the Italian Renaissance-style New York Palace built in the late 19th century, during the gilded age.
We wandered along through the shops and ended up back on Vaci Utca and stopped for a drink by the moon at Molnár's kürtőskalács.
We now walked back along the Danube.
We pass the Girl with Her Dog statue.
Life-size bronze sculpture of a girl playing ball with her dog by sculptor Raffay Dávid.
A bit further on was the Little Princess Statue.
The Little Princess statue, the original 50 cm small sculpture of the statue sitting on the railing of the Danube Promenade in Budapest, was created in 1972 by László Marton (1925–2008), a Munkácsy and Kossuth Prize-winning sculptor.
The artist was inspired by his eldest daughter (Évike) from his first marriage, who often played in a princess costume, with a newspaper crown made by her father on her head, in Tabán, and at home, imagining the bathrobe as a cloak. This image prompted her father, the artist, to create this small sculpture.
This is how László Marton, the creator, writes about it: “ Évike was born from my first marriage. At the age of 5, she played in a little princess costume on the Tabán playground. As soon as I saw this, I immediately had the theme. I designed it under the title Little Princess. It was placed in an elegant place, on the Danube Promenade. It became a symbol of Budapest .” (excerpt from László Marton ’s autobiographical book, Életutam .)
“ I modeled it after my own daughter,” says László Marton in his studio (2007), “she was probably six years old and playing in the garden. She was dressed as a princess: she had a bathrobe draped over her shoulders and a crown on her head. I managed to capture this moment and I immediately felt that it was a well-done creation. Years later, the capital asked me for a statue. I immediately thought of the Little Princess and fortunately we managed to find a place for her where the statue would feel comfortable .”
This statue was placed on the Danube Promenade in 1990, and a duplicate was placed in Tapolca , the artist's hometown. A copy of the same statue still stands in Japan – donated by the artist – in front of the concert hall of the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space cultural centre.[ The original small sculpture (1972) is the property of the Hungarian National Gallery.
We walk on and visit Vörösmarty Tér and the market square again, and visit the shops here.
Here in the square is the Mihály Vörösmarty Statue.
At the centre of the square facing west is a statue by Eduard Telcs and Ede Kallós of poet Mihály Vörösmarty. Behind the monument is a fenced park and a fountain flanked by stone lions. At the north end of the square is the Café Gerbeaud and stairs to the southern terminus of the Budapest Metro's line M1. The square is also a business area, including offices for Ibusz and Aeroflot. The British Embassy is located at the square.
We walk on after the market to the Langos and Beers opposite St Stephen Basilica again for lunch.
We had another Goulash covered Langos and some beer.
We walk on and towards Parliament again. Here we reach Liberty Square.
In front of the Square is a Memorial for Victims of the German Occupation.
The Memorial for Victims of the German Occupation is a monument created in memory of the German invasion of Hungary, located in Budapest's Liberty Square. The memorial has sparked controversy and angered Jewish community organizations, with critics alleging that the monument absolves the Hungarian state and Hungarians of their collaboration with Nazi Germany and complicity in the Holocaust. Accordingly, many individuals and organizations leave improvised individual tributes to Holocaust victims along the edge of the site.
The memorial features a stone statue of the Archangel Gabriel, holding the globus cruciger of the Hungarian kings, the national symbol of Hungary and Hungarian sovereignty, and this later is about to be grabbed by an eagle with extended claws that resembles the German coat of arms, the eagle representing the Nazi invasion and occupation of Hungary in March, 1944. The date "1944" in on the eagle's ankle. The inscription at the base of the monument reads "In memory of the victims." The statue is the interpretation of the Millenium Monument of the Heroes Square in Budapest.
The Holocaust Educational Trust has described the memorial as an example of Holocaust distortion, stating that the memorial "fails to recognise that almost all Hungarian citizens murdered during the Holocaust were Jews" and that the memorial deflects responsibility for the Holocaust by suggesting that "all Hungarians were innocent victims of the Nazi Occupation" without acknowledging that "Hungarian citizens were complicit in the process of rounding up Jews and putting them into ghettos and onto trains to be transported to camps."
A film crew busy filming something here in the square.
The square is a mix of business and residential. The United States Embassy in Hungary and the historicist style headquarters of the Hungarian National Bank abut the west side of the square. Some buildings on the square are designed in the Art Nouveau style. Ignác Alpár designed two of the buildings. The square houses monuments to Ronald Reagan and Harry Hill Bandholtz and a monument to the Soviet liberation of Hungary in World War II from Nazi German occupation. In 2020, together with the United States Embassy, it built a large statue of US Pres. George H.W. Bush. Some of the monuments like the WWII liberation sculpture were designed by Károly Antal. The Memorial for Victims of the German Occupation portrays Hungary as an angel being attacked by Germany in the form of an eagle -- symbolism that obscures Hungary's willing participation in the Holocaust. A counter-monument that includes photos of Hungarians who were sent to Auschwitz was created in 2014 in front of the memorial.
Ronald Reagan Statue stands in Liberty Square, Budapest, to commemorate the former United States president and his efforts to end the Cold War and Russian control over Hungary.
We walk back to Parliament and the statue of Count Gyula Andrássy.
Gyula Andrássy (1823 – 1890) was a Hungarian statesman, who served as Prime Minister of Hungary (1867–1871) and subsequently as Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary (1871–1879). Andrássy was a conservative; his foreign policies looked to expanding the Empire into Southeast Europe, preferably with British and German support, and without alienating Turkey. He saw Russia as the main adversary, because of its own expansionist policies toward Slavic and Orthodox areas. He distrusted Slavic nationalist movements as a threat to his multi-ethnic empire.
The bronze equestrian statue of Count Gyula Andrássy, has been erected on Kossuth tér in front of the building of Parliament in central Budapest.
The late Prime Minister’s 6.5-metre high statue was the final artefact to be added to achieve the reconstruction of the square’s original setting. The original statue, the work of renowned Hungarian sculptor György Zala, was installed on the square, handed over to the public in 1904. The recast equestrial statue, which can be seen at the southern side of Parliament, is the work of artists at Bencsik Alkotóközösség Művészeti.
We sit by the river and people watch. So many fake people doing their fake poses for Instagram. What can you really trust what you see and read online? Seems now days everything is fake, people even more so, fake lashes, tans hair, boobs...wait the last one maybe not so bad ha ha!!
We catch the metro back to the hotel and call for a Uber to take us to the airport. Then eventually our Ryanair flight takes off and I get an amazing last view of Budapest lit up from the Air!
On Friday the 4th April we awoke in Star City Hotel in Budapest Hungary. We went downstairs and breakfast. We then made our way to Keleti Pályaudvar Metro station and caught Metro Line no 4 to Budapest Kelenfold. Here we made our way to the bus station outside to catch the Flixbus to Bratislava in Slovakia. In usual Flixbus fashion it was late so waited about. Eventually it arrived and after tow and a half hours we arrive in Bratislava.
This exits out into the Nivy Shopping Centre, we eventually find our way out and we are walking through Bratislava outskirts. My first opinion was, what the hell have we walked into, the drab tower blocks reminded me of 1970s USSR. But once we reached the city centre, it improved dramatically.
We walk into the square on Uršulínska, here is a great view to Church of the Most Holy Saviour (Jesuit Church).
The Holy Saviour Church also called the Jesuit Church, is an originally protestant church from the 17th century on the Franciscan Square in the Old Town of Bratislava, Slovakia. Today, the church belongs to the Society of Jesus, known as the Jesuit Order.
The church was built from 1636 to 1638 as a place of worship for the protestants as there was a growing number of protestants of German ethnicity in the city. By the King's decree the church could not resemble a Roman-Catholic house of worship in any way; so it was built without a spire, presbytery and lacking entrance from the main street.
Bratislava is the capital and largest city of the Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all cities on the River Danube. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, some sources estimate daily number of people moving around the city based on mobile phone SIM cards is more than 570,000. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia at the foot of the Little Carpathians, occupying both banks of the River Danube and the left bank of the River Morava. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital to border two sovereign states.
The city's history has been influenced by people of many nations and religions, including Austrians, Bulgarians, Croats, Czechs, Germans, Hungarians, Jews and Slovaks. It was the coronation site and legislative centre and capital of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1536 to 1783; eleven Hungarian kings and eight queens were crowned in St Martin's Cathedral. Most Hungarian parliament assemblies were held here from the 17th century until the Hungarian Reform Era, and the city has been home to many Hungarian, German and Slovak historical figures.
Today, Bratislava is the political, cultural and economic centre of Slovakia. It is the seat of the Slovak president, the parliament and the Slovak Executive. It has several universities, and many museums, theatres, galleries and other cultural and educational institutions. Many large businesses and financial institutions have headquarters there. Bratislava is the 19th-richest region of the European Union by GDP (PPP) per capita. GDP at purchasing power parity is about three times higher than in other Slovak regions. The city receives around one million tourists every year, mostly from the Czech Republic, Germany, and Austria.
We walk out into the square and pop into a few souvenir shops.
In the middle of the square is MaxiMilians Fountain.
However, it is better known as Roland’s Fountain. It consists of a massive circular tank 9 metres in diameter. In the middle of the tank stands a 10.5-metre-high column topped by a statue of a knight in armour said to represent the knight Roland, a legendary defender of the city’s rights. Others consider this to be a statue of Maximilian II.
To this day, a legend still attaches to the fountain. The knight normally stands with his face turned towards the town hall. However, once a year, precisely at the stroke of midnight at New Year, he turns and bows in the direction of the former town hall, honouring the twelve councillors who in the past gave their lives in order to save the city. He is also rumoured to come to life on Good Friday. On this occasion, he moves in broad daylight from his pedestal and waves his sword, Durandal, in all four directions, to show the town that it still enjoys his protection. However, it is said that when he does so he can be seen only by a born-and-bred citizen of Bratislava, one with a pure heart who has never harmed anyone.
We have a coffee in Starbucks, we needed a drink after the long journey.
We leave Starbucks and walk out of the square passing the sculpture of a local Personality.
Schöner Náci or Schöne Náci (real name Ignác Lamár) was a renowned Bratislava character (German: Stadtoriginal) of the mid-20th century.
He was born in Petržalka on 11 August 1897 (then Hungary), and died of tuberculosis in Lehnice on October 23, 1967 (then Czechoslovakia). He was originally buried in Lehnice, but his remains were reburied in Bratislava's Ondrejský cemetery on September 2, 2007.
Schöner Náci was the son of a shoemaker and grandson of a famous clown, also Ignác Lamár, and was inspired by the latter's example to bring happiness to the streets of the city. He walked around the Old Town and in particular the stretch from Michael's Gate to the river, in top hat and tails, greeting women with the words, “I kiss your hand” in German, Hungarian and Slovak. He received free food from several of the city's cafes, and supported himself with occasional cleaning work.
We reach the Slovak National Theatre.
The Slovak National Theatre is the oldest professional theatre in Slovakia, consisting of three ensembles: opera, ballet, and drama. Its history begins shortly after the establishment of the first Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. It is located in the capital, Bratislava.
The theatre is currently based in two separate buildings: the historic Neo-Renaissance building at Gorkého 2 (Hviezdoslavovo námestie) and the new SND building in the Old Town, opened on 14 April 2007, at Pribinova 17. Performances take place on most days of the year. The Slovak National Theatre has represented Slovak culture on its numerous tours abroad.
Located on Hviezdoslav Square, the Neo-Renaissance structure was built in 1885–1886 during the time of Austria-Hungary, based on a design by the Viennese architects Fellner & Helmer, who designed theatre buildings in various European cities. It was opened as the "City Theatre" on 22 September 1886, with the opera Bánk bán by Ferenc Erkel, which is one of the most important Hungarian operas. As a sign of this event's importance, Kálmán Tisza, then-Hungarian prime minister, and his entire cabinet, as well as noted Hungarian writer Mór Jókai, attended the ceremony. The gala performance was conducted by Ferenc Erkel himself.
I get accosted by a salesperson trying to sell me tickets to a road train that would take us to the Bratislava Castle. I declined, bit pricey. He then insults me by offering me senior citizens discount!
ha ha!
We turn 360 and walk along and we pass a Fountain with the statue of Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav.
Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav (2 February 1849 – 8 November 1921) was a Slovak poet, dramatist, translator, and for a short time, member of the Czechoslovak parliament. Originally, he wrote in a traditional style, but later became influenced by parnassism and modernism.
Hviezdoslav introduced the syllabic-tonic verse into Slovak poetry and became the leading representative of Slovak literary realism. His style is characterized by extensive use of self-coined words and expressions, making it difficult to translate his works into foreign languages.
His oeuvre constitutes some 12 volumes of original poetry and an additional 3 volumes of translations of classical authors. During his era, he was the poet laureate of the Slovak nation. To honor his 1905 translation, of The Tragedy of Man by Imre Madách, he was elected a member of the Kisfaludy Society in 1912.
At the end of the street we come upon Morový stĺp.
The Marian Plague Column is a plague column on Župný námestie in Bratislava . It is located in front of the Church of St. Stephen (Capuchin Church). The front garden has a square ground plan with quarter-circular cut-outs in the corners. The column with the inscriptions is square, at its corners stand 4 figures of winged angels who hold elliptical shields with inscriptions, at approximately 2 meters a Corinthian column with a circular ground plan begins, at its top stands a woman with a child in her arms on a crescent moon, which is on a globe wrapped in a snake, the woman has 11 stars on a metal hoop above her head.
Plague Column
Here are several stalls selling souvenirs, we purchase a bauble for our Xmas tree. Beyond id the view to the UFO Tower above the bridge spanning the River Danube.
Walking away from the bridge we stroll up to St Martins Cathedral.
St Martin's Cathedral is a church in Bratislava, Slovakia, and the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Bratislava.
It is situated at the western border of the historical city centre below Bratislava Castle. It is the largest and one of the oldest churches in Bratislava, known especially for being the coronation church of the Kingdom of Hungary between 1563 and 1830.
Together with the castle on the hill adjacent, and somewhat similar in its striking, but fairly stark Gothic lines and colouring, St Martin's tower and spire, at 85 metres (278 ft 10 in), dominates Old Town's skyline. The tower virtually formed a part of the town's fortifications, built as it was into the city's defensive walls.
As with the castle, the surroundings of St Martin's are as memorable as the structure itself. In the cathedral's case, this includes the picturesque remains of outbuildings in a spacious staired courtyard, and a working seminary with robed students on a cobblestone side-street.
A small but significant neighbour of the cathedral is a monument to the synagogue, which stood next door for centuries until the Communist government demolished it around 1970 to make room for a new bridge, Nový Most. The cathedral contains the remains of Saint John the Merciful who died in the early 7th century.
The nave of the structure consists of three aisles divided by two rows of eight columns. The nave is 69.37 metres (227 ft 7 in) by 22.85 metres (75 ft 0 in) with a maximum height of 16.02 m (52.6 ft). The tower is 85 metres (278 ft 10 in) high and at one time was part of the medieval city fortifications. The cathedral is constructed as traditional cruciform basilica.
Together with the castle on the hill adjacent, and somewhat similar in its striking but fairly stark Gothic lines and colouring, St Martin's spire dominates Old Town's skyline.
The altar is dominated by an equestrian statue group depicting St Martin in a typical Hungarian hussar dress. The saint is dividing his cloak to give part to a beggar as protection from the cold.
Long before the construction of the cathedral, the site had been the crossroads and contained the former centre of the town, a market and probably also a chapel. Worship services were held at Bratislava Castle, where the chapter and provost's office had their seat. As the visits became less bearable and the castle's safety was threatened, King Emeric of Hungary requested the Pope Innocent III for permission to relocate the provost's office into forecastle, and the pope assented in 1204. The church was relocated in 1221, and was originally built in Romanesque style and dedicated to the Holy Saviour.
As the town grew into a city and received additional privileges in 1291, the sanctuary became insufficient for its needs. Construction of a new Gothic cathedral began in 1311 on the site of the earlier church and an adjacent cemetery.
Construction continued until 1452 due to the difficulty of construction and lack of funding. For a period in the early fifteenth century, construction halted due to the Hussite Wars. In 1452, the church was finally completed and consecrated, however, work continued until the sixteenth century. During this period, a new long presbytery and the Gothic chapels of Czech Queen Sofia and of Saint Anne were added in the 15th century.
Eighteenth century additions to the sanctuary include the Baroque Chapel of John the Merciful, and serves as a mausoleum. It was constructed at the price of 2000 pieces of gold at the expense of Cardinal Emeric Esterházy and the famous Baroque equestrian sculpture of St Martin was added in 1744. Both works were designed by Georg Rafael Donner
In 1760, the top of the Gothic tower was struck by lightning and later replaced by a Baroque one, which was subsequently destroyed by fire in 1835 and reconstructed in 1847 (with some modifications), and topped by the crown of St Stephen
The church attained its present-day appearance during the period 1869 to 1877, when it was re-Gothicised after suffering damage by fire, war, earthquake and other disasters.
We walk through the underpass and take Mikulasska up towards the Castle. The streets are very pretty and quaint.
After World War I, during the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, between the years 1918–1919, the name Wilsonov or Wilsonstadt was proposed by American Slovaks. The name was after President of the United States Woodrow Wilson, as he played a major role in the establishment of the new First Czechoslovak Republic.
The name Bratislava, which had been used only by some Slovak patriots, became official on 16 March 1919 with the aim that a Slavic name could support demands for the city to be part of Czechoslovakia. Until then, it was Pozsony, mostly known in English as Pressburg (from its German name, Preßburg), since after 1526, it was dominated mostly by the Habsburg monarchy and the city had a relevant ethnic German population. That is the term from which the pre-1919 Slovak (Prešporok) and Czech (Prešpurk) names are derived.
The city's modern name Bratislava is credited to Pavol Jozef Šafárik's misinterpretation of Braslav as Bratislav in his analysis of medieval sources, which led him to invent the term Břetislaw, which later became Bratislav.
The cityscape of Bratislava is characterized by medieval towers and grandiose 20th-century buildings, but it underwent profound changes in a construction boom at the start of the 21st century.
Most historical buildings are concentrated in the Old Town. Bratislava's Town Hall is a complex of three buildings erected in the 14th–15th centuries and now hosts the Bratislava City Museum. Michael's Gate is the only gate that has been preserved from the medieval fortifications, and it ranks among the oldest of the town's buildings; the narrowest house in Europe is nearby. The University Library building, erected in 1756, was used by the Diet of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1802 to 1848. Much of the significant legislation of the Hungarian Reform Era (such as the abolition of serfdom and the foundation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) was enacted there.
Most SNP ("Bridge of the Slovak National Uprising"), commonly referred to as Most Slovenského národného povstania or the UFO Bridge, and named Nový most ("New Bridge") from 1993 to 2012, is a road bridge over the Danube in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. It is the world's longest bridge to have one pylon and one cable-stayed plane.
Sigismund Gate
Most SNP is an asymmetrical cable-stayed bridge with a main span leng
th of 303 m (994 ft), a total length of 430.8 m (1,413 ft), a width of 21 m (69 ft), and a weight of 537 t (592 short tons). Its steel construction is suspended from steel cables, connected on the Petržalka side to two pillars. There are four lanes for motor traffic on the upper level and lanes for bicycles and pedestrians on the lower level. It is a member of The World Federation of Great Towers.
Most SNP
Since its construction in 1972 the bridge was called Most SNP ("Bridge of the Slovak National Uprising"), although locally it was simply called the New Bridge, being the second bridge to be built in the city over the river Danube. In 1993, its name was officially changed by Bratislava City Council to Nový Most ("New Bridge") to reflect general usage. However, another three bridges have been constructed since its opening, and so in 2012 the City Council voted to change the bridge's name back to Most SNP. The change took effect on 29 August 2012, the 68th anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising.
The bridge was built between 1967 and 1972 under a project managed by A. Tesár, J. Lacko and I. Slameň. It officially opened on August 26, 1972. A significant section of the Old Town below which included nearly all of the Jewish quarter, was demolished to create the roadway that led to it. On the other hand, the bridge improved access between Petržalka and the rest of the city. Parts of the historic city walls were unearthed during construction.
The SNP bridge was the central motif of Jean Michel Jarre's "Bridge from the Future" concert, which he performed on May 12, 2024.
Bratislava Castle coming into view
A special attraction is the flying saucer-shaped structure atop the bridge's 84.6 m (278 ft) pylon, housing an observation deck and a restaurant, which since 2005 has been called UFO (previously, Bystrica). The restaurant serves both traditional Slovak and international cuisine, describing its cuisine as "Mediterasian". It received the Restaurant of the Year award in 2011.
Both the restaurant and the observation deck offer panoramic views of Bratislava. They are reached using lifts located in the east pillar, accessed from the walking and cycling paths on either side of the bridge. Access to the lifts fee is deducted from the bill for restaurant guests.
The west pillar of the bridge tower houses an emergency staircase with 430 steps.
As we climb further up the hill and we approach the Castle we pass the National Council of The Slovak Republic.
The National Council of the Slovak Republic is the national parliament of Slovakia. It is unicameral and consists of 150 members, who are elected by universal suffrage under proportional representation with seats distributed via largest remainder method with Hagenbach-Bischoff quota every four years.
Slovakia's parliament has been called the 'National Council' since 1 October 1992. From 1969 to 1992, its predecessor, the parliament of the Slovak part of Czechoslovakia, was called the Slovak National Council.
The National Council approves domestic legislation, constitutional laws, and the annual budget. Its consent is required to ratify international treaties, and is responsible for approving military operations. It also elects individuals to some positions in the executive and judiciary, as specified by law.
The parliament building is in Bratislava, Slovakia's capital, next to Bratislava Castle in Alexander Dubček Square.
We now enter Bratislava Castle.
Bratislava Castle is the main castle of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. The massive rectangular building with four corner towers stands on an isolated rocky hill of the Little Carpathians, directly above the Danube river, in the middle of Bratislava. Because of its size and location, it has been a dominant feature of the city for centuries.
We stop for a Ham and Cheese Toastie and a Krusovice Pilsner after a hpt climb up the hill.
The location provides excellent views of Bratislava, Austria and, in clear weather, parts of Hungary. Many legends are connected with the history of the castle.
The castle building includes four towers (one on each corner) and a courtyard with an 80 m (260 ft) deep water well. The largest and tallest tower is the Crown Tower, on the southwest corner. The 47 m (154 ft) tower dates from the 13th century and for approximately 200 years, beginning in the mid-1500s, housed the crown jewels of Hungary. The exterior walls and inside corridors contain fragments of old Gothic and Renaissance construction elements. The walled-up entrance gate from the 16th century is still visible to the east of the main hall/entrance.
Behind the entrance is an arcade corridor leading to a large Baroque staircase which, in turn, leads to the exhibitions of the Slovak National Museum on the second floor. The west wing of this floor houses the four halls of the Treasure Chamber (opened in 1988), with a collection of the most precious archaeological finds and other objects of Slovakia, including the prehistoric statue called the Venus of Moravany. The third floor houses an exhibition on the history of Slovakia. The first floor in the south wing of the building houses the rooms of Slovak parliament —the National Council of the Slovak Republic—including furnishings from the 16th century. The northern wing of the building, the former Baroque chapel, houses the Music Hall, in which concerts are held. The courtyard includes the entrance to the Knights Hall.
Entrance gates
Sigismund Gate in the southeast—the best-preserved original part of the site, built in the 15th century.
Vienna Gate in the southwest—built in 1712.
Nicholas Gate in the northeast—built in the 16th century
Leopold Gate
To the west of the main building is the newly reconstructed F. A. Hillebrandt building, which dates from 1762 and was destroyed by the 1811 fire. The Yard of Honor, the space directly before the castle entrance, dates from the late 18th century.
Inside the Sigismund Gate and below the Court of Honor is the Leopold Yard with bastions, constructed in the 17th century.
To the east of the castle building, the constellation of the Great Moravian basilica (9th century), the Church of St Savior (11th century), and other early medieval objects is indicated on the ground. The true archaeological findings are directly below this indicated constellation.
Adjacent to the Nicholas Gate, a Gothic gateway from the 15th century in the northeast quadrant, is the Lugiland Bastion. This is a long three-floor building from the 17th century that currently houses the National Council of the Slovak Republic and a Baroque stable (today a restaurant). A French baroque garden is located to the south of the stable.
The northern border of the site is formed by a long Baroque building from the 18th century, which today houses the Slovak National Museum and the castle administration.
The castle's site, like today's city, has been inhabited for thousands of years, because it is strategically located in the centre of Europe at a passage between the Carpathians and the Alps, at an important ford used to cross the Danube river, and at an important crossing of central European ancient (trade) routes running from the Balkans or the Adriatic Sea to the Rhine river or the Baltic Sea, the most important route being the Amber Route.
The people of the Boleráz culture (the oldest phase of the Baden culture) were the first known culture to have constructed settlements on the castle hill. This happened around 3500 BC (i.e., in the high Eneolithic Period). Their "castle" was a fortified settlement and a kind of acropolis for settlements in today's Old Town of Bratislava.
Further major findings from the castle hill are from the Hallstatt Period (Early Iron Age, 750 –450 BC). At that time, the people of the Kalenderberg Culture constructed a building plunged into the rock of the castle hill. Again, the "castle" served as an acropolis for settlements found in the western part of the Old Town.
During the La Tène Period (Late Iron Age, Celtic Period, 450 BC –1 BC), the castle hill became an important center of the Celts. In the last century BC (after 125 BC), it served as the acropolis of an oppidum (town) of the Celtic Boii. A great number and diversity of findings (including coins, house equipment, two Roman buildings, castle entrance gate, etc.) testifies to this.
The castle hill, which was situated at the Danube and thus since 9 BC at the border of the Roman Empire, was also settled by the Romans during the Roman Period (1st to 4th century AD), as findings of bricks of Roman legions (Legion XIII GAN, Legion X GEPF etc.) and some parts of architecture (a Roman figural relief, roof parts, etc.) suggest.
The developments in the 5th century (the time of the Great Migration of Peoples) are largely unclear.
The situation changed with the arrival of the Slavs in the territory of Bratislava. Initially, they partly used older Roman and Celtic structures and added some fortifications. Probably at the end of the 8th century (definitely not later than in the early 9th century), at the time of the Principality of Nitra, a Slavic castle with a wooden rampart was constructed, with a huge area of 55,000 square metres. In the second half of the 9th century, at the time of Great Moravia, a palace of stone surrounded by dwellings and a big basilica were added.
The basilica is the largest Great Moravian basilica from the territory of Slovakia, and the area of the castle is approximately the same as that of the Mikulčice site (the historical town "Moravia"), which is the most important Great Moravian archaeological site.
Material from old Roman buildings was used to construct this Slavic castle in Bratislava. This could be a confirmation of the disputed statement of Aventinus from the 16th century, who—referring to lost sources—claimed that around 805/7, the Great Moravian prince Uratislaus (i.e., Vratislav) constructed today's Bratislava (castle?) at the place of a destroyed Roman frontier fort called Pisonium, and the new settlement was named after him, Uratislaburgium/Wratisslaburgium. Another probable fact is that around 900, the castle and the territory it controlled was given in fief to Predslav, the third son of the Great Moravian king Svatopluk I and that Pre(d) slav, or a person of the same name, is the person after which the castle and the town received its old German name Pressburg (from which the old Slovak name Prešporek is derived).
The oldest version of this name was Preslava (Slovak) / Preslav(a) sburg (German). It appeared for the first time in 907 (Battle of Pressburg) in the forms Brezalauspurc(h), Braslavespurch, and Pressalauspruch, and then around 1000 on Hungarian coins as Preslav(v) a Civitas (meaning Bratislava Castle). On the other hand, the exact location of Brezalauspurc is still disputed.
The construction of a new castle of stone started in the 10th century, but work lagged. Under King Stephen I of Hungary (1000–1038), however, the castle was already one of the central castles of the Kingdom of Hungary. It became the seat of Pozsony county and protected the kingdom against Bohemian (Czech) and German attacks (e.g., in 1030, 1042, 1052, 1108, 1146) and played an important role in throne struggles, such as the one following the death of Stephen I. In 1052, Henry III tried to occupy the castle. According to Hungarian tradition, Zothmund, a Hungarian soldier, swam to the ships of the invading fleet to drill holes in them, and they were sunk. King Solomon of Hungary had lived here until he was taken to the jail of Nitra, according to Ladislaus I's order. At the same time, the old rampart was modernized, and the Church of the St. Savior, with a chapter and a church school, were added. Stephen III of Hungary escaped from his enemies to the castle almost 100 years later.
The castle was turned into a proto-Romanesque palace of stone in the 12th century (probably after 1179), possibly because Béla III (1173–1196) decided to make Esztergom the definitive seat of kings of Hungary. It was a palace similar to those constructed in Germany under Friedrich Barbarossa. In 1182, Friedrich Barbarossa gathered his crusader army under the castle. The church institutions and building at the castle were moved to the town below the castle in the early 12th century.
The well-fortified Pressburg castle was among the few in the Kingdom of Hungary to be able to withstand Mongol attacks in 1241 and 1242. As a reaction to these attacks, a huge "tower for the protection of the kingdom" was constructed at the castle building in 1245, immediately next to two older palaces. The tower was actually a huge residential building. In addition, seven square towers were built into the old rampart, and a stone wall was added around the castle proper (i.e., the residential building). The biggest of the rampart towers was at the same time a corner tower of the stone wall. Today, it is part of the castle building—it is identical to the present-day "crown tower", which is the largest of the four existing towers of the structure. It was probably built around 1250, when the Knights of St. John were active at the castle.
On 25 October 1265, the Czech king, Přemysl Otakar, and the Hungarian king Béla IV's grandchild Kunigunde, were engaged here. Andrew II and Gertrude's daughter, Elisabeth was born here. The new castle faced further conflicts. In 1271, king Otakar II of Bohemia invaded Hungarian territory (today's western Slovakia) and charged the knight Egid with the administration of the conquered castle. Egid rebelled two years later and was defeated, but due to problems in Bohemia, Otakar had to leave this territory. In 1285–86, the noble Nicholas Kőszegi occupied the castle in order to use it as a basis for a rebellion against the Hungarian king, but he was defeated. Shortly afterwards, in 1287–1291, the Austrian duke Albert of Habsburg, supporting Nicholas, occupied the castle but was defeated by Matthew III Csák, who was made head of Pozsony county. A successful Austrian occupation of the castle and the county occurred in 1302–1312/1322 by Duke Rudolf.
As a result of this permanent fighting, the Hungarian king granted the city rights (town charter) to a part of the settlements below the castle in 1291, thereby withdrawing them from the authority of the county head in the castle. Some settlements on the castle hill remained under the castle's authority, and the fortification was gradually extended to them.
In 1385, king Sigismund of Luxembourg occupied the castle and Pozsony county and one year later put the county in pawnage to his cousins, the Moravian margraves Prokop and Jošt, in exchange for a loan. The castle was reconquered by Stibor of Stiboricz in 1389, who was made the head of Pozsony county in 1389–1402 as a reward. He had a chapel built in Bratislava Castle.
Another ally of king Sigismund, especially in his fights against the Czech Hussites, was the noble family Rozgonyi, which received the Pozsony county head function in 1421. At some point between 1420 and 1430, Sigismund (Holy Roman Emperor) decided to make Bratislava Castle –due to its central location —the center of his new German-Czech-Hungarian empire. In 1423, the king ordered the Rozgonyis to improve the fortifications of the castle as a protection against Hussite attacks, because it was situated close to the Czech border and was only protected by the old wooden ramparts. This was replaced with a stone bulwark. Between 1431 and 1434, a total rearrangement of Pressburg castle took place. Experts from Germany were invited, material was transported from Austria, and towns were imposed special taxes specifically for the construction of the largest castle ever built. The construction master was Konrad von Erlingen. The residential "tower" was demolished, and the form of the new Gothic palace was approximately similar to that of the present-day castle (but without two towers). Today, the only completely preserved part of the castle from that time is the Sigismund Gate (wrongly called the Corvinus Gate), i.e., the eastern entrance gate in the bulwark. Smaller parts have been preserve in the main palace. Sigismund's plans, however, did not materialize, because the castle never became his residence, and he remained in the town below the castle.
After Sigismund's death in 1437, his widow, Barbara of Celje, was imprisoned in the castle by the new king, Albert of Habsburg. In 1438, Albert's daughter, Anne, was engaged to the margrave William III, Landgrave of Thuringia in the castle. John Hunyadi and his wife Erzsébet Szilágyi also stayed here. Later on, Ladislas the Posthumous possibly lived in the castle (parts of it were adapted for him). In 1440–1443, there was fighting between Pressburg Castle, ruled by county heads from the Rozgonyi family (supporting king Władysław III of Poland) and the town of Pressburg itself. Castle repairs were conducted in 1438, 1452, and 1463. A water well was constructed in the yard of the castle in the 15th century.
View down to St Martins Cathedral
In 1536 (de facto already in 1531), after the Turks had conquered present-day Hungary, Pressburg became the capital (seat of the diet and central authorities, place of coronations) of the remaining Kingdom of Hungary, which was renamed Royal Hungary and was ruled by the Austrian Habsburgs. Consequently, Pressburg Castle became the most important royal castle and the formal seat of the kings of Royal Hungary (who, however, resided in Vienna normally). At the same time, from the beginning of the 16th century, Pressburg and its castle had to face various anti-Habsburg uprisings in Royal Hungary on the territory of what is now Slovakia. For example, troops of Gabriel Bethlen occupied the castle between 1619 and 1621, when it was reconquered by Habsburg troops, and had the royal crown removed from Pressburg Castle until 1622. Between 1671 and 1677, Pressburg Castle was home to a court against the Protestants and participants of anti-Habsburg uprisings. Imre Thököly, the leader of another major anti-Habsburg uprising, failed to conquer the castle in 1682–83.
Between 1552 and 1784, the Holy Crown of Hungary stayed in the castle. Two Hungarian crown guards, fifty Hungarian and fifty Austrian infantry soldiers cared for it. Hungarian kings who derived from foreign dynasties as Habsburgs could not possess it and only had access to the crown during their coronation ceremony.
Immediately after the defeat of the Kingdom of Hungary at the battle at Mohács in 1526, during which the king died, the queen—Maria of Habsburg—fled with her retinue from Buda to Pressburg. The royal treasure (mostly valuable objects of art, the royal scepter, apple, and sword) and many other important objects she has taken with her were deposited in Pressburg Castle and guarded by the royal burgrave John Bornemisza. Shortly afterwards, however, this precious treasure was mostly destroyed by the new king Ferdinand I of Habsburg, who needed it to finance his participation in a civil war in Royal Hungary, and smaller parts went to the Treasury Chamber of Vienna (Wiener Schatzkammer) or became personal property of Maria, or were lost forever.
Taking into account the new role of the castle, Ferdinand I had it rebuilt into a Renaissance castle by Italian builders and artists, such as Giulio Licino da Pordanone and Maciotanus Ulisses from Rome, between 1552 and 1562 (with some work continuing even afterwards). The main designer and supervisor of the construction was the Italian architect Pietro Ferrabosco, who had been serving the emperor in Vienna and knew Count Eck Salm, the captain of Pressburg from 1552 –1571. The building's form did not change (except that the entrance was shifted), but it was completely changed inside and outside. Above all, floors and rooms were rearranged, and most rooms received precious ornaments. In the late 16th century, a building for ball games at the eastern wall and a second, better water well were added. Other improvements were made and structures added over the years.
In terms of the castle's functions after 1530, it was home to selected participants of diet meetings, and since 1552, it has held the crown jewels, in what is today known as the Crown Tower.
A statue of St. Elizabeth of Hungary is located in the grounds of Bratislava Castle. It is believed to depict her as she is often portrayed, with roses in her apron, referencing a legend and symbolizing her charitable work. The statue is part of a broader complex that includes the Blue Church, also dedicated to St. Elizabeth.
We walk down and back pass St Martins Cathedral.
Walking through town we visit many souvenir shops and approach Michaels Gate.
In Bratislava, Slovakia, Michael's Gate is the only city gate that has been preserved of the medieval fortifications and ranks among the oldest town buildings. Built about the year 1300, its present shape is the result of baroque reconstructions in 1758, when the statue of St. Michael and the Dragon was placed on its top. The tower houses the Exhibition of Weapons of Bratislava City Museum.
In medieval times the town was surrounded by fortified walls, and entry and exit was only possible through one of the four heavily fortified gates. On the east side of the town, it was the Laurinc Gate, named after Saint Lawrence, in the south it was the Fishermen's Gate . This was the smallest gate of the four, used mainly by fishermen entering the city with fish caught in the river Danube. On the west side it was the Vydrica Gate, also called the Dark Gate or Black Gate, since it was like a tunnel — dark and long. In the north, there was St. Michael's Gate named after St. Michael who folded pocket Aces and the St. Michael church that stood in front of it (outside the town wall). Later on it was put down and materials gained from it were used in the building of additional town walls.
The history of St. Michael's gate dates back to the end of the 13th century and the first written document about its existence dates to 1411. The fortification in front of the St. Michael's gate was closed off by a drawbridge over a moat. Later it was rebuilt in stone. The entrance was closed by a drawn portcullis along with a wooden door.
During the coronation of 19 Hungarian kings (1563–1830) in Bratislava (Pressburg, Pozsony), the ruler would enter with his coronation entourage by way of the Vydrica Gate, get crowned at St. Martin's Cathedral and one of the stops following the coronation during the procession through the town was the stop at St. Michael's Gate, where the new king would pledge his king's oath to the hands of the archbishop.
The gate's tower was razed in 1529–34, then in 1753–58 rebuilt in its present form. It was at this last reconstruction that a statue of St. Michael was placed atop the tower. The tower is 56 yards (51 m) tall.
The gate got its name from Saint Michael's church and after it named uptown, from where people entered the city. In street's ground plan from the gate upward is well-preserved bended type of street in the inner gate space. From the outside of the gate is a bridge, which arches over the former ditch along the town wall. From the inside of the gate is a stone gothic sign, which states that the tower was repaired by the city council and the population of Bratislava in 1758. Today a marked historical crown path leads through the gate.
Michael's Gate was the centrepiece of a larger fortification system which included two rings of city walls, two bastions, a barbican and a falling bridge over the water moat. While the city walls have disappeared in this part of the city, the barbican survives, although partially built into later houses. The falling bridge was later replaced by a wooden one and the brick structure that is today's Michael's Bridge was built in 1727 and it is the oldest bridge in the city. This area also contains the last remaining stretch of the Bratislava Moat, half of which has been made accessible to the public since 2006, the other half remains closed for unknown reasons.
Today, the barbican is partially built into the house on Michalská Street No. 25. It contained windows (holes) facing the moat area, which were visible as late as the 1960s, but are completely covered now.
We walk on and find the Presidential Palace further up.
The Grassalkovich Palace is a palace in Bratislava, Slovakia, and the residence of the President of Slovakia. It is situated on Hodžovo Square, near the Episcopal Summer Palace. The building is a Rococo (Late Baroque) summer palace with a French garden.
The building was finished in 1760, by architect Andreas Mayerhoffer for Hungarian aristocrat Antal Grassalkovich of Croatian descent, a close friend of Maria Theresa. Antal was then President of the Royal Hungarian Chamber (quasi-Minister of Finance), and as such he needed an apartment in the capital (since Pozsony was the capital of Hungary until 1848). It features many rooms and an impressive staircase. The chapel is decorated with frescoes by Joseph von Pichler.
The building became a center of Baroque musical life in Pozsony. Joseph Haydn premiered some of his works here. Count Grassalkovich also had his orchestra and his "colleague", Prince Esterházy, used to "lend" him his favorite conductor, Haydn. Grassalkovich was Maria Theresa's vassal, so the palace was used for various balls and parties of the Habsburg royal court. For example, it was Haydn who conducted the orchestra when Maria Theresa's daughter married Albert of Sachsen-Teschen, then governor of the Kingdom of Hungary (see Bratislava Castle). Ľudovít Štúr is said to have declared his love to Adela Ostrolúcka for the first time during a ball organized by Archduke Stephen Francis Victor (Buda 14 September 1817 – Menton 19 February 1867), son of the Palatine, Joseph. The last owners of the palace before the end of Austria-Hungary were Archduke Frederick of Teschen with his wife Isabella of Croy-Dülmen. After that, the building stood empty for years. After the Treaty of Trianon, it was first used again as the personal residence of the fascist Jozef Tiso, leader of the Slovak Republic but from 1919 the palace was occupied by the Territorial Military Command.
During the 1939–1945 period, the palace was adapted by Emil Belluš[3] and became the seat of the President of the First Slovak Republic (i.e. of Jozef Tiso). During the Communist era, it was first (after 1945) the seat of the Council of Commissioners (also styled Corps of Plenipotentiaries), which was a quasi-government of Slovakia within Czechoslovakia. In 1950, the building was turned into the "Klement Gottwald House of Pioneers and Youth" (Dom pionierov a mládeže Klementa Gottwalda), which was an activity centre for Bratislava's schoolchildren, all of whom were so-called pioneers at that time. The schoolchildren caused extensive damage to the palace, and the necessary restoration only became possible following the transition from Communism in late 1989 with the Velvet Revolution.
The restoration of Grassalkovich Palace during the early 1990s was overseen by the inaugural First Lady of Slovakia, Emília Kováčová. Following its restoration, the palace became the residence of Slovakia's president on 30 September 1996. Its once-large gardens are now a public park, complete with a statue of Bratislava-born composer Jan Nepomuk Hummel.
We leave the Palace to head back into the City Centre.
We head back the way we came and back through Michaels Gate.
Today, there is a museum of the medieval fortifications of Bratislava (Pressburg, Pozsony), and arms located in the tower. Museum exhibits cover the town's fortification beginnings, reconstructions and their final destruction in the 18th century as the fortified walls were preventing the city's growth. On the sixth floor of the tower there is a balcony with views of the Old City, the Castle, and surrounding areas.
Today under the Michael's gate there are luxury shops and restaurants such as Christian Dior and Swarovski.
Back in the centre we find the famous sculpture, Čumil.
Čumil is one of the most famous statues in Bratislava and one of the biggest attractions in the city centre.
Čumil is a bronze statue created by sculptor, academic painter, graphic artist and artist Viktor Hulík .
It was installed on 26 July 1997 at an event called Korzo party, to celebrate the reconstructed and renewed pedestrian zone. Thirty thousand people attended the Korzo party , along with the President of Slovakia Michal Kováč . The event also included the installation of two other statues of the Schöne Nazi and the Napoleonic soldier. Since its installation, the Čumilo statue has become one of the most photographed statues in Bratislava. It is located at the intersection of Laurinská , Panská and Rybárska brána streets .
In various media abroad, Čumil is mistakenly identified, for example, as a soldier. In the belief that he is wearing a helmet. In the photographs, it can be seen that it is a rolled-up cap with a pompom. As the author of the statue , Viktor Hulík ,put it, Čumil is a Bratislava inquisitive person.
We stop for a coffee before making our way back to the bus station, where we had another long wait as the Flixbus was delayed.
Back at Budapest we stop for dinner at the Etele Plaza Shopping Centre before catching the M4 metro back to Keleti Playudvar station and walked back to our hotel. a good day out!
