Europe

Bratislava

I apologise for the appearance of Peter I of Yugoslavia over this chapter. It's an inflexible feature of my template design.

Peter had little to do with the first Czechoslovak Republic except that like Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia also came into being after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in October 1918.

Slovakia is not a Balkan state but as we had previously spent time in the Czech Republic and were passing, we decided to take a look at Bratislava.

Bratislava - some less iconic views

Yet Slovakia was, like those states that once formed Yugoslavia, at that time part of a larger entity - Czechoslovakia.

From 1948 to 1990, Czechoslovakia was part of the Eastern Bloc and the Warsaw Pact. In 1989 in what came to be called the Velvet Revolution state price controls were removed and in 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed. Two years later Czechoslovakia split into two - the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

The old town of Bratislava where the locals like dressing up

New Bratislava.
The building site is the view from our rented apartment on 25th floor.
The runners are participating in a fun run and the street sculptures are reminiscent of those in Melbourne

The Holocaust Memorial

Above is a memorial to the Holocaust when during the time of Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin, Jews and Roma were rounded up and sent to extermination camps with the assistance of much of the non-Jewish population. An estimated 136,000 Jews lost their lives in Czechoslovakia alone, with some communities in the Czech Republic all but obliterated.

In the centre of the city stands Bratislava Castle on a rocky hill that has been fortified since the time of the ancient Celts, iron age warriors, who held this region from the 4th century BCE.

Bratislava Castle

The Celts were replaced by the Romans early in the Common Era and then the Slaves in the 10th century CE. By the 12th century it was the seat of the Kingdom of Hungary from which Crusades were launched and a century later it withstood Mongol attacks and acquired its four corner towers. It continued to be an important defensive fortification and seat of government until the abolition of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1781 after which it fell into disrepair and in 1809 Napoleon's guns bombarded it. After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of the First World War Czechoslovakia declared its independence and the ruined Castle risked demolition to make way for new administrative buildings.

The panorama from the main south-wester tower

But then came the Second World War at the end of which Czechoslovakia was liberated from the Nazis by the Russians and thus became a Communist country and a member of the Warsaw Pact. In a grand socialist gesture, in 1954 it was decided to restore Bratislava Castle to its former glory.

All went well, until the First Secretary of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - Alexander Dubček - we remember him well - decided to instigate the reforms known as the 'Prague Spring'. This caused (in August 1968) the other Warsaw Pact countries, led by Russia, to invade, confirming to the world all the terrible things we'd heard about Communism.

The almost completed castle was invaded too and became a museum and government offices. Yet during the 1980's there was more trouble in the workers' paradise and in 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed, throwing all the socialist republics into economic and social turmoil, many, like Czechoslovakia, sizing their independence. Then on 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia was split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

After the Bush-Putin 'Bratislava Summit', that took place in the Castle in February 2005, it was decided to complete the restoration; and work began in 2008. Among the first steps was painting the, previously-brown-building, white, inside-and-out. In some galleries, mouldings, gold detailing and chandeliers now add to the palatial oeuvre. It's not finished but an initial public airing was given on television in 2010.

The Assumption of the Virgin Mary, de Anton Schmidt in Bratislava Castle - harking back to Turkey
The crucifix was the less usual four nail style - more typically three - see those in Split (above)

This is also a region famed for the quality of its glass manufacturing and furniture design so naturally these had pride of place in the Castle Museum.

The vast castle also houses an art gallery, many of the pictures depicting heroic workers, as appropriate to the People's Republic, that prevailed when they were made.

Pictures from the gallery in Bratislava Castle

About 15 km out of town are the ruins of Devin Castle, that once dominated the confluence of the Danube and Morava rivers and as we were now on a castle 'high' - how could we miss it?

Devin Castle

How the castle came to be ruined is not a secret. Napoleon's engineers blew it up with their petards. Perhaps one or two were 'hoist' upon them?

Why, is more of a mystery? They were retreating at the time, so maybe they wanted to deny it to a potential competitor - kicking away the proverbial ladder? Yet, the very interesting on-site museum suggests that this was unlikely to be the reason. Possibly it was for entertainment, like shooting the nose of the Sphinx? Maybe they had some explosives that they wanted to get rid of? Anyway, they made a big mess.

There has been some modern reconstruction and tidying up; but it remains a ruin.

The ruins of Devin Castle

I particularly liked the large and very deep well. There was a bucket of water provided and a good splosh into the well made a very nice noise as it hit the water at the bottom - nearly three seconds later. A lovely science experiment and maths problem - time it exactly and deduct a bit for the speed of sound to find the depth.

The fall of the Iron Curtain

Cutting the Iron Curtain - December 1989

In December 1989 as part of the Velvet Revolution, around 100,000 Bratislavans assembled here; cut through the barbed wire that formed the border to Austria; and marched into Western Europe.  It was the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union.