Feb 00 - In Vlkolinec, Slovakia
Saved yr.s ago at the wrong pixel volume. (Ouch. Maybe it's so bad it's good? To be rescanned someday.)
I came here to Vlkolinec (pron. Vil-coll-ih-netz) directly from Bratislava in the wrong season (evidently) to see the well-preserved folk architecture. The village has Unesco 'world heritage' designation in light of the state of its preservation, but I was the only tourist @, of course (in 1 - 2' of snow). www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi2xjppk76Y It's a living village and I remember after chatting with a friendly local for a bit asking if I could take his photo and he immediately and sharply asked 'Why?!' I guess tourists can make the locals feel like they live in something like a zoo with photo requests.
- My travels in Slovakia are under-represented in this stream, with only 5 photos from my 1st tour @. (I entered the country 3 x, the 3rd time to mail a package home from Kosice). I arrived in Bratislava from Telc via Brno in early February and stayed a few days. I slept in a home-stay (which I would often do in Eastern Europe), on a couch in the apt. of a woman who was enthusiastically pro-American (I had the sense that Bratislavans were, generally) and who had a wall in her living room covered with an impressive collection of postcards of night-scapes from big neon-lit cities (I meant to send her another but lost her address). The locals were nice but I wasn't crazy about Bratislava. (I'd been spoiled by Berlin, Dresden, Prague, etc.) I don't recall all that I saw, but I'm sure of the following.
- I pored over the contents of 'the Slovak national museum' in the huge, high, very historic white castle on the hill overlooking the city for a full day (or 2?). I remember much royal silverware. First built in the 9th cent, with parts dating from the 13th, it was reconstructed and renovated a bunch over the centuries, but was bombarded by Napoleon's troops in 1809 and then burned in 1811, and sat as a ruin until 1953 when reconstruction began and continued to '68 under the Communists, restoring it to its state in the baroque period, with older surviving bits preserved. The crown jewels of Hungary were kept in the 'crown tower' for @ 200 yr.s from the mid 16th cent. when Bratislava was historic 'Pressburg'.
- The pink, neoclassical Primate's palace (1778-81), in which 6 large, detailed tapestries on show depict the story of ancient Greek lovers Hero and Leander. (Hero was a woman.) Woven in the 1630s at the Mortlake Tapestry Works near London, they were found in 1903 hidden behind a wall. "In 1805, the Palace's Hall of Mirrors saw the signing of the 4th Peace of Pressburg, ending the War of the 3rd Coalition" (wikipedia) which followed the battle of Austerlitz, as a result of which the 'Holy Roman Empire' was dissolved. I don't recall if I knew that when I was there, nor that the opening sessions of the Hungarian Diet were convened there.
- The 'Bratislava City Museum' in the Old Town Hall, created in the 15th cent. by connecting 3 14th cent. townhouses, with a tower built in @ 1370. It has a torture chamber section in the basement, which you find in many European history museums.
- The gothic St. Martin's cathedral, the former coronation church for Hungarian royalty from 1702 to 1830 (Martin of Tours was Hungarian). "By 1702, the cathedral of Nagyboldogasszony [in Székesfehérvár] was blown up [by Albert of Austria], thus destroying the largest cathedral in Hungary at that time, and the coronation temple. By the Doctrine of the Holy Crown, all kings of Hungary were obliged to be crowned in this cathedral, and to take part in a coronation ceremony in its surroundings. The coronations after that time were held in Pozsony [aka Pressburg, now Bratislava]." (Wikipedia) 11 Hungarian kings and 8 royal wives were crowned inside St. Martin's.
- The famous UFO-esque restaurant propped high above the bridge over the Danube with its view. (When using the urinal in the mens' w/r you face a floor-to-ceiling-length window with a view over the river).
- And I walked @ the outskirts at least of the ruins of Devin castle which dates from no later than the 9th cent. and saw its tiny, intact, iconic watchtower, the 'Maiden's tower', which features on the tail-side of a Slovak coin, and with its views of Austria across the river situated as it was at the very edge of the 'iron curtain', and where I did some clambering. "Hungarians [who refer to it as Dévény] regarded it as the western gateway to the Kingdom of Hungary." (wikipedia) Although it was in ruins and exposed, the castle itself might've been closed for the season, I'm not sure.
- The most appealing Odon-Lechner-designed bldg. that I've seen pictures of (and I toured 3 in Budapest) is a baby-blue church in Bratislava. (It reminds me of what's left of the set of 'Whoville' from Jim Carrey's 'The Grinch ...', seen on a tram tour of the Universal studios lot in Hollywood). I heard nothing about it when I was there, so that was a miss. (This guy talks about it quickly for much of this video.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rztlTrRtFKk )
Feb 00 - In Vlkolinec, Slovakia
Saved yr.s ago at the wrong pixel volume. (Ouch. Maybe it's so bad it's good? To be rescanned someday.)
I came here to Vlkolinec (pron. Vil-coll-ih-netz) directly from Bratislava in the wrong season (evidently) to see the well-preserved folk architecture. The village has Unesco 'world heritage' designation in light of the state of its preservation, but I was the only tourist @, of course (in 1 - 2' of snow). www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi2xjppk76Y It's a living village and I remember after chatting with a friendly local for a bit asking if I could take his photo and he immediately and sharply asked 'Why?!' I guess tourists can make the locals feel like they live in something like a zoo with photo requests.
- My travels in Slovakia are under-represented in this stream, with only 5 photos from my 1st tour @. (I entered the country 3 x, the 3rd time to mail a package home from Kosice). I arrived in Bratislava from Telc via Brno in early February and stayed a few days. I slept in a home-stay (which I would often do in Eastern Europe), on a couch in the apt. of a woman who was enthusiastically pro-American (I had the sense that Bratislavans were, generally) and who had a wall in her living room covered with an impressive collection of postcards of night-scapes from big neon-lit cities (I meant to send her another but lost her address). The locals were nice but I wasn't crazy about Bratislava. (I'd been spoiled by Berlin, Dresden, Prague, etc.) I don't recall all that I saw, but I'm sure of the following.
- I pored over the contents of 'the Slovak national museum' in the huge, high, very historic white castle on the hill overlooking the city for a full day (or 2?). I remember much royal silverware. First built in the 9th cent, with parts dating from the 13th, it was reconstructed and renovated a bunch over the centuries, but was bombarded by Napoleon's troops in 1809 and then burned in 1811, and sat as a ruin until 1953 when reconstruction began and continued to '68 under the Communists, restoring it to its state in the baroque period, with older surviving bits preserved. The crown jewels of Hungary were kept in the 'crown tower' for @ 200 yr.s from the mid 16th cent. when Bratislava was historic 'Pressburg'.
- The pink, neoclassical Primate's palace (1778-81), in which 6 large, detailed tapestries on show depict the story of ancient Greek lovers Hero and Leander. (Hero was a woman.) Woven in the 1630s at the Mortlake Tapestry Works near London, they were found in 1903 hidden behind a wall. "In 1805, the Palace's Hall of Mirrors saw the signing of the 4th Peace of Pressburg, ending the War of the 3rd Coalition" (wikipedia) which followed the battle of Austerlitz, as a result of which the 'Holy Roman Empire' was dissolved. I don't recall if I knew that when I was there, nor that the opening sessions of the Hungarian Diet were convened there.
- The 'Bratislava City Museum' in the Old Town Hall, created in the 15th cent. by connecting 3 14th cent. townhouses, with a tower built in @ 1370. It has a torture chamber section in the basement, which you find in many European history museums.
- The gothic St. Martin's cathedral, the former coronation church for Hungarian royalty from 1702 to 1830 (Martin of Tours was Hungarian). "By 1702, the cathedral of Nagyboldogasszony [in Székesfehérvár] was blown up [by Albert of Austria], thus destroying the largest cathedral in Hungary at that time, and the coronation temple. By the Doctrine of the Holy Crown, all kings of Hungary were obliged to be crowned in this cathedral, and to take part in a coronation ceremony in its surroundings. The coronations after that time were held in Pozsony [aka Pressburg, now Bratislava]." (Wikipedia) 11 Hungarian kings and 8 royal wives were crowned inside St. Martin's.
- The famous UFO-esque restaurant propped high above the bridge over the Danube with its view. (When using the urinal in the mens' w/r you face a floor-to-ceiling-length window with a view over the river).
- And I walked @ the outskirts at least of the ruins of Devin castle which dates from no later than the 9th cent. and saw its tiny, intact, iconic watchtower, the 'Maiden's tower', which features on the tail-side of a Slovak coin, and with its views of Austria across the river situated as it was at the very edge of the 'iron curtain', and where I did some clambering. "Hungarians [who refer to it as Dévény] regarded it as the western gateway to the Kingdom of Hungary." (wikipedia) Although it was in ruins and exposed, the castle itself might've been closed for the season, I'm not sure.
- The most appealing Odon-Lechner-designed bldg. that I've seen pictures of (and I toured 3 in Budapest) is a baby-blue church in Bratislava. (It reminds me of what's left of the set of 'Whoville' from Jim Carrey's 'The Grinch ...', seen on a tram tour of the Universal studios lot in Hollywood). I heard nothing about it when I was there, so that was a miss. (This guy talks about it quickly for much of this video.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rztlTrRtFKk )