Bratislava Travel

Only 60 km (37 miles) from Vienna, Bratislava is in every way an old European city, with a beautifully restored historic quarter (Stare Mesto) and Habsburg Baroque architecture which help to offset its communist legacy. Its location on the Austrian border, with close proximity to Hungary and the Czech Republic, have resulted in a difficult political past, but like all cities of cultural confluence, the result is a justified fame for diverse architecture, wine and cuisine.

With a population just over 600,000, Bratislava lies on a bend of the Danube (Dunaj, in Slovak), like Vienna and Budapest, with bridges connecting its two halves. However, sites of interest to visitors are almost all north of the river, in the cobbled streets of the Old Town. Also lying at the foot of the Lesser Carpathian Mountains, Bratislava (oldest name Brezalauspurc) held a high status from the second century BC as an important defence and trading post, and was particularly prized for its vineyards. From 1536 (after the Ottoman invasion of Hungary) to 1783, Bratislava was the capital of Hungary, known as Pozsony, and the coronation town of Hungarian kings. Until 1918 the city was a resort area of Austria-Hungary, called Pressburg by Germans from as early as the 13th century, and also held a large Jewish population at one time.

Since Slovakia joined the EU in May 2004, Bratislava has rocketed up in price in terms of cost of living, but it is also rising in fame for cultural tourism as well as being a thriving business centre.