Introduction |  |
An EU member since 2004 and a big hit with budget airline weekenders, Bratislava is booming. A project earmarked for completion in 2010 envisages a leisure and office complex, European Riverfront, on the Danube embankment in the compact city centre, and the communist-era train station and surrounding area will be completely revamped. Foreign tourism has increased by a third, the Slovakian capital now has a dozen four-star hotels and the city moved up 12 places to 44 in the Mercer register of Most Expensive Places To Live (doesn’t local beer count?).
In short, the flagship of the pastoral little state of Slovakia, a mongrel of Hungarian, Habsburg, Jewish, Czechoslovak and Soviet extraction, is in full bloom. Chic clubs, steadily improving restaurants and an increasingly manicured old centre complement the better-known attractions of a castle on the Danube, baroque palaces and gardens, Viennese-style cafés, classic Slavic beerhalls and low prices. It’s well worth a weekend.
The Danube separates the quaint old town (Stare Mesto) on the north bank from the housing estates on the south. Linking the two is the huge SNP (‘Slovak National Uprising’) Bridge, also known as Novy Most (‘New Bridge’), a 1970s sci-fi monstrosity. You can ride the lift to the restaurant at the top for panoramic views of the city.
Key sights are within easy reach. Bratislava’s most historic monument is St Martin’s Cathedral (Dom sv Martina, Rudnayovo námestie). The Gothic site of Hungarian coronations and the spiritual heart of staunchly Catholic Slovakia is now isolated, diesel-stained and hardly idyllic. Above it, on the other side of the bridge approach road stands the remarkably uncompromised castle, Bratislavsky hrad (5441 1444) – jutting, square and prosaic. Rebuilt after the war, its walls offer views of the Carpathians, its cellars provide atmospheric nightclub space, and its main building houses the Slovak National History Museum (5441 1444, closed Mon).
The last remaining gateway from the city walls that once protected the old town, St Michael’s Tower (Michalská vez, Michalská 24, 5443 4742) offers views of Austria and occasionally Hungary from its tower above pedestrianised Stare Mesto. Just around the corner from the main square, Hlavné námestie, stands the pink façade of the Primate’s Palace (Primacialny palace; Primaciálne námestie 1, closed Mon). It houses a modest art collection, fine English tapestries from the 17th century and a hall of mirrors. It was here that Napoleon and Habsburg ruler Franz I signed a peace treaty after the Battle of Austerlitz. The Old Town Hall also stands in the square, and the City Museum that it houses has a fabulously gory dungeon.
• Tourist information: Klobucnická 2 (5443 3715, www.bratislava.sk).
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