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Museum of Middle Slovakia, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
Bobbin lace is a lace textile made by braiding and twisting lengths of thread, which are wound on bobbins to manage them. As the work progresses, the weaving is held in place with pins set in a lace pillow, the placement of the pins usually determined by a pattern or pricking pinned on the pillow.
Bobbin lace is also known as pillow lace, because it was worked on a pillow, and bone lace, because early bobbins were made of bone or ivory.
Bobbin lace is one of the two major categories of handmade laces, the other being needlelace, derived from earlier cutwork and reticella.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobbin_lace
mybystrica.sme.sk/c/20790394/vystavu-s-nazvom-trpezlivost...
The Assumption Cathedral (Croatian: Katedrala Velike Gospe, Katedrala Marijina Uznesenja) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Dubrovnik, Croatia. It is the seat of the Diocese of Dubrovnik.
The cathedral was built on the site of several former cathedrals, including 7th, 10th and 11th century buildings, and their 12th century successor in the Romanesque style. The money to build the basilica was partially contributed by the English king Richard the Lion Heart, as a votive for having survived a shipwreck near the island of Lokrum in 1192 on his return from the Third Crusade.
This building was largely destroyed in the earthquake of 1667. The Senate of Dubrovnik appealed to the Italian architect Andrea Bufalini of Urbino, who sent a model for the new church in Baroque style with a nave, two aisles and a cupola. Several other Italian architects including Francesco Cortese (present from 1669 until his death in 1670), Paolo Andreotti of Genoa (present 1671-1674), Pier Antonio Bazzi of Genoa (present 1677-78), and friar Tommaso Napoli of Palermo (present 1689 - 1700), all working with local and imported stonemasons, completed the Cathedral over the next three decades. Napoli made several crucial changes to the original plans including the use of a cross vault and the opening of large thermal windows at the upper level. This gives the whole interior a lighter and brighter feel. The style of the cathedral is in keeping with the esthetics of Roman Baroque architecture as practiced by Bernini, Carlo Fontana and their 17th century contemporaries. The construction began in 1673. The building was finished in 1713 by the Dubrovnik architect Ilija Katičić.
The building was damaged by the 1979 Montenegro earthquake, requiring several years of repairs.
The cathedral was damaged by at least one shell during the Siege of Dubrovnik in 1991. The damage has since been repaired.
Čumil
The Watcher - 'Man at Work' by Viktor Hulík (Bratislava 1949), Slovak sculptor
Bronze sculpture of a man peeping out of the manhole. His name is Čumil and he is either resting after cleaning the sewer or is looking under women's skirts. After the statue had lost its head twice due to inattentive drivers, it was decided to place a unique road sign next to it.
This Slovakian statue of an emerging sewer worker might just be a bronze peeping tom.
MEET CUMIL, BRATISLAVA’S SOMEWHAT NOTORIOUS sewer worker statue. Is he resting? Is he heading down to clean up your mess? Is he just lurking?
Debate rages on as to what this cheeky chap is actually doing as he pokes out of a sculptural manhole in Bratislava’s old town district. The odd statue was installed in 1997 as part of an effort to spice up the look and feel of the area, which was traditionally marked with drab, Communist-era architecture and decoration.
As Cumil is leaning out over a curb it comes as no surprise that his head has been clipped off more than once by careless motorists. The statue isn’t just a danger to drivers, but to pedestrians, too. Woe betide the drunkard stumbling their way home in the dark; he’ll have you on the ground if you’re not paying attention. In order to protect drivers, amblers, and— most importantly—Cumil himself, the city installed a warning sign just above his head.
Physical dangers aside, Cumil has come to be a beloved institution in the city, and visitors come from all over to lay in the street and look him in the eyes, or just sit on his head.
Bratislava is the capital and largest city of Slovakia and the fourth largest of all cities on Danube river. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, some sources estimate it to be more than 660,000—approximately 140% of the official figures. 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 center and capital of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1563 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 of Slovakia's large businesses and financial institutions have headquarters there.
GDP at purchasing power parity is about three times higher than in other Slovak regions. Bratislava receives around one million tourists every year, mostly from the Czech Republic, Germany, and Austria.
Bratislava currently the capital of Slovakia and the country's largest city, has existed for about a thousand years. Because of the city's strategic geographical location, it was an important European hub due to its proximity to the advanced cultures of the Mediterranean and the Orient as well as its link to the rest of Europe, which were possible by the Danube River.
In the area where present-day Bratislava lies, three skeletons of the (Epi)Pliopithecus vindobonensis were found in the borough Devínska Nová Ves in 1957, dating to 25–15 million years ago. Teeth of the Griphopithecus suessi (formerly known as Sivapithecus darwiny or Dryopithecus darwiny), dating 14–10 million years ago, were also found in Devínska Nová Ves, this time in 1902. From the Paleolithic period, hand-axes and other stone tools of Homo heidelbergensis (from the periods about 0.45 million years and about 0.3 million years ago) and of Neanderthal man were found.
The first known permanent settlements on the town's territory (Linear Ceramics Culture) was during the Neolithic period. However, during the Early Stone Age there was already a settlement in the general area. But this was not within the present territory of the city. The first known fortified settlement on the area of later medieval castle of Bratislava appeared in Eneolithic. In the Bronze Age there were settlements from both older and younger (Urnfield cultures) part of the period. On the area of later Devín castle one finds important clues to the final period of the Bronze Age (Podoli Culture), when a fortified settlement arose on the strategic place: rock-cliff over river Morava joining river Danube.
The early Iron Age brought a shift of the settlements focus again to the area of today's historical centre and the castle of Bratislava. This period is considered an epilogue to Central European pre-history and this is attributed to the migration of the Thracian tribes, which brought with them their version of the Hellenic civilization. Many archaeological finds support the theory that both the castle-hill and the area of the town (on an important river-crossing) formed an important seat of local Hallstatt Culture and that the richly furnished mounds (barrows) excavated on eastern suburbs of the city may have been burial grounds of princes.
The La Tène period is defined as from 450 BC to 50 BC. Celts (more exactly the tribe of Boii) formed between 125 and 50 BC an important Celtic oppidum (fortified town) with a mint in the area of the castle hill and the historical centre. There is an acropolis on the castle hill and some settlements below (crafts) and around it (farming). Bratislava then became a genuine town for the first time in history (it will become a de facto town again in the 9th century AD and then again in the 11th century). The most notable finds are represented by silver coins, bearing inscriptions (biatecs in most cases). Biatec may have been the name of the local prince who organized the minting or the name of the place itself. After the bloody defeat at the hands of Dacian forces under the leadership of King Burebista (shortly after the middle of the 1st century BC) the remaining Celts retreated to the site of Devín, creating a smaller, more easily protected hill-fort settlement. The arrival of Germans from the west forced the rest of the Celts to seek protection under the Romans on the other (right) side of Danube.
From the 1st to 4th centuries the border of the Roman Empire (Limes Romanus) ran along the Danube. The northern side belonged to the Free Barbaricum (German tribes – Marcomanni) and southern side belonged to Rome. Under the suburb of Rusovce, the remains of the Roman border town Gerulata have been excavated, as well as cemeteries and farming background of the town (Villa Rusticas). Despite belonging officially to Barbaricum, several sites of Roman presence are to be found on the area of the city. There is, for example, the case of the Devín Castle, which historical records such as the Chronicle of Fulda, alluded to as the impregnable Roman military garrison called Dowina. Traces of Roman presence also include Stupava, a trading station and Dúbravka, which is known for the remains of Roman baths (attempt to build Villa Rustica?).
The Slavs arrived in the area between the 5th and 6th centuries during the Migration Period (375-568). Recently, archaeologists found a carbonized loaf of bread at Devin and its age was estimated to be older than the Slavic settlement but still fell within the period of the migration of nations.
In 568 the Eurasian Avars arrived in the area. After a successful insurrection of the Slavs (probably at Bratislava-Devín) against Avarian rule in this region, Samo was made King of the Slavs in 623, establishing the first known Slavic political entity, Samo's Empire, which lasted until 658. From the 8th century until 907 the Pressburg fortress as well as the Dowina (Devín) Castle are important centres of the Principality of Nitra.
In 864 the first written reference to the Devín Castle (Dowina) appears in the Fuldish Annals. Around 900 it was probably owned by the (originally) Lower Pannonian prince Braslav (Bräslav, Brazlaw) - or by a magnate of the same name - who was a vassal of Bavaria (Germany). Earlier, it was thought that Bräslav was the person who gave the town Bratislava its German name Brezalauspurc (see 907), later Pressburg, and maybe also its new Slovak name Bratislava; nowadays, it is assumed that Pressburg/Brezalauspurc is a distortion of Predeslausburg, a name derived from Predslav, who was (according to some historians) the ruler of Bratislava around 900 and the 3rd son of the Great Moravian king Svätopluk; the modern Slovak name Bratislava, however, is assumed to be derived (by mistake) from the name of the Czech ruler Bretislav I. The first written reference to Bratislava (as Brezalauspurc) appears in 1837 by J. Safarik Slovak historian. The Bavarians were totally defeated by the Magyars; as a result, the Frankish East March dissolved and was occupied by the Magyars (907–955). Pressburg then became part of emerging medieval Hungary.
From 1000 to the early 13th century a market settlement (the future town centre) grew below the Pozsony Castle (first written reference in 1151) and became an important centre in the early 13th century. Further settlements in the surrounding areas followed. The Castle became one of the best fortifications in Hungary because of its position, and (along with the city) became a site of frequent attacks and battles, and a place of frequent stay by Hungarian kings. Around 1000 the Pozsony county (comitatus), one of the first counties in Hungary, was founded, probably by Grand Prince Stephen I. Coins with the inscriptions "PHANUS REX" and "RESLAVVA CIV" have been found in Sweden; some scholars claim that the coins were minted in "(p)RESLAVVA CIV(itas)" or "(b)RESLAVVA CIV(itas)" (i.e., in the town of Bratislava), but other authors point out that no coins of this type have been found on the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary, their weight and diameter differ from King Stephen's other coins and their inscriptions are confused which suggest that they are counterfeit coins minted abroad on the sample of other coins that had been minted following the patterns of King Stephen's coins with the inscriptions "STEPHANUS REX" and "REGIA CIVITAS".
In 1030 the Czech duke Břetislav I, participating in a campaign of the German emperor Konrad II against Hungary, devastated present-day western Slovakia and undertook an attack against the Pozsony castle but was defeated by the Hungarian king. 12 years later Břetislav I and the troops of the German king Henry III temporarily conquered Pozsony. Henry undertook a new invasion in 1043.
In 1052 the German king Henry III besieged Pozsony for 2 months without success, but caused considerable damage to the castle. The following year, Pope Leo IX personally visited the town to achieve a peace between Henry and the Hungarian king. In 1073 and 1074 Hungarian king Solomon, who was based at Pozsony castle during his fighting against Géza and Duke Ladislaus, had the castle reconstructed. Hungarians settled in the market settlement below the castle in several waves in the 12th and 13th centuries, joining the previously predominantly Slovak inhabitants there[citation needed]. In 1108 the German king Henry V, along with the Czech duke Svatopluk, failed to conquer Pozsony/Pressburg castle. In 1109 a new attack of[clarification needed] the Czechs (undertaken as a revenge for a Hungarian attack of Moravia) failed. Boris, who claimed the throne against King Géza I of Hungary (although his mother had been removed by her husband, King Coloman of Hungary because of adultery), besieged and conquered Pressburg Castle in 1146. The Hungarian king has to buy it back. The Hungarian king Stephen III was living in Pozsony castle in the 1160s and had its fortification improved. Participants of the Third Crusade to the Holy Land, led by the German king Frederick I Barbarossa, gathered at Pozsony castle in 1189.
In 1241 and 1242 the Mongols failed to conquer the fortified castle and the town below it, but temporarily devastated the surrounding settlements. The castle was adapted after these attacks. After 1242, German colonists came to the town and gradually their number increased, so that until the late 19th century they represented by far the largest ethnic group in the town. In 1271 and 1273–1276 the town was captured by the King of Bohemia, Ottakar II in connection with fighting between Hungary and Bohemia because of Styria. In this connection, the (1st) Peace of Pressburg was signed in 1271.
The city was captured by the Hungarian nobleman and palatine Nicolaus von Güssing in 1285–1286, who (temporarily) burned down the castle in 1286, but his revolt against the king was defeated. In 1287–1291 the city was captured by the Austrian duke Albert of Habsburg. Albert was defeated by the Hungarian nobleman Matthew III Csák of Trenčín, who was the leader of Pozsony and Trenčín counties at that time and Pozsony belonged to Hungary again.
The town (the part below the castle) was conferred its first (known) town privileges by the Hungarian king Andrew III in 1291. Earlier town privileges are not known, but probable, because Pressburg has been called a "town" as early as around 1250. After 1291, the town received many privileges from Hungarian kings, especially from the emperor Sigismund in the 15th century. After the death of the Hungarian king Andrew III, Pressburg was annexed by Austria in 1301, because Andrew's widow gave the town to the Habsburgs. The Habsburgs returned it to Hungary in 1322, but occupied it again later. It is only in 1338 that the town finally became part of Hungary again. In 1405 the town was declared a free royal town by King Sigismund of Luxemburg. Not only Pressburg but all towns[citation needed] in Hungary got this status (meaning that they received "collective nobility", i.e. the status of a feudal lord with all its privileges) because Sigismund wanted to restrain the increasing power of the (true) feudal lords in Hungary. The Hussites first appeared in 1428, when they burned down the suburbs of Pressburg. Negotiations held a year later in Pressburg between Sigismund of Luxemburg and the Hussites (in April and in June) failed. Between 1432 and 1434 the Hussites tried to conquer the city but their attacks failed. The first bridge over the Danube in Pressburg was built in 1434, but it was destroyed by floods next year. In 1434 and 1435 the amount of paymentsby Hungary, for which the Hussites would leave Slovakia, was officially negotiated. In 1436 Sigismund of Luxemburg awarded Pressburg the right to use its own coat of arms and orders to improve the fortification of the castle (because of the last Hussite invasion during that year). From 1439 to 1486 another bridge over the Danube existed in Pozsony, being washed away by flood in 1486.
Between 1440 and 1443 there was fighting between the castle of Pozsony, supporting king Ladislaus III of Poland, and the actual town of Pozsony below the castle hill, supporting (and owned by) queen Elisabeth. In 1442 Ladislaus settled at the castle and temporarily conquered the town, but was defeated by the Austrian emperor Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor supporting Elisabeth. Finally, in 1443 Elisabeth got the town back, but the castle remained in Ladislaus' hands till his death in 1444.
From 1465 until 1490 Pozsony was the seat of the first university in present-day Slovakia, the Universitas Istropolitana (often wrongly called Academia Istropolitana). From 1490 to 1526 Pressburg was a place of diplomatic negotiations under the Jagiellonian kings. In the summer of 1490 Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor drove the Hungarians from Austria, and even occupies Hungarian frontier territories, but he is compelled by want of money to retreat, and signed the Treaty of Pressburg (also called the (2nd) Peace of Pressburg) with the Hungarian King Ladislaus II on 7 November 1491. Under this treaty it is agreed that Hungary renounced Lower Austria and agreed that Maximilian should succeed to the crown in case Ladislaus left no legitimate male issue.
After the Battle of Mohács in 1526, where the Kingdom of Hungary was defeated by the expanding Ottoman Empire, the Turks besieged Pressburg 1529, but failed to conquer it. Two years later churches and hospitals outside the town wall were deliberately destroyed so that the Turks would not be able to see from there into the town behind the town wall. In the beginning of 1532 thousands of soldiers were sent to Pressburg as a protection against the Turks planning to attack Vienna. Pressburg was temporarily turned to a military camp. The Turks, seeing the military force in Pressburg, decide to attack Vienna from the south. In this period the city became a safe haven for the Holy Crown of Hungary, kept safe from Turkish and Habsburg hands.
As a consequence of Ottoman advances through Hungarian territory and the capture of Buda, the Pressburg designated as the capital of Royal Hungary in 1536. The Kingdom of Hungary was part of the Habsburg Monarchy from 1526 to 1918. Pressburg was also made a meeting place of the Hungarian Diet from 1542 to 1848 (with interruptions) and the coronation town for Hungarian kings and queens from 1536 to 1830 (in the St. Martin's Cathedral). The first coronation was that of King Maximilian of Habsburg, the last one the coronation of Ferdinand V. Altogether, 11 kings and 8 queens were crowned in the town. During Maria Theresa's 40-year reign, Bratislava - along with the rest of her empire - enjoyed sustained economic and social growth.
However, in the 17th century, the town was affected by anti-Habsburg uprisings. In addition, there was fighting with the Turks, floods, plagues and other disasters. The Evangelic Lutheran Lyceum (Evanjelické lýceum) (a kind of Protestant grammar school[clarification needed] and, in the 19th century, also a kind of university) was founded in 1607.
In 1606 (during the Stephen Bocskay Uprising), Bocskay troops occupied the surroundings of Pressburg. Gabriel Bethlen conquered Pressburg in 1619, as a part of the Bethlen uprising. He was defeated by imperial troops in 1621, and then besieged the town from 1621 to 1622. The (3rd) Peace of Pressburg between Gabriel Bethlen and the emperor Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor was signed in 1626, which put an end to the Bethlen anti-Habsburg uprising. From 1671 to 1677 Pressburg was seat of extraordinary courts against the Protestants and participants in the anti-Habsburg uprisings; e.g. a trial against the participants of the Wesselényi conspiracy takes place in 1671. In the Imre Thököly Uprising (1682–1683) Pozsony was the only town in present-day Slovakia that refused to capitulate to Thököly's troops. Finall, the town, but not the castle, capitulated in July 1683 and was only reconquered by Imperial troops after the Turks were defeated near Vienna (September 1683). The last of the uprisings that affected the town was in 1704 (within the Rákóczi Uprising), when Prince Eugene of Savoy managed to protect Pressburg from Rákóczi's troops, although the surroundings of the town wer totally destroyed.
Since the 18th century the city has been an important centre of the Slovak national and cultural movement (Slovak National Revival). The Great Plague Epidemic killed 3800 people in the years 1710 and 1711. Later the Holy Trinity column was erected in thanksgiving to God for its ending. In the 18th century, many new baroque buildings were erected, the economy flourished (first factory in 1728), and the first parks were established (see today's Hviezdoslavovo námestie). The town wall was demolished in 1775 to enable further expansion, the first city theatre was opened in 1776, and Pressburg became the largest and most important town in the territory of present-day Slovakia and Hungary. The first journal in Hungary, Mercurius Veridicus ex Hungaria, was published here in 1705 and the first regular newspaper in Hungary (written in Latin), Nova Posoniensia, was published in 1721–1722.
The Pragmatic Sanction law was enacted in 1713, which decided the Habsburg monarch's unity and that woman can inherit the Hungarian throne. Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned Queen Regnant of Hungary at St. Martin's Cathedral on 25 June 1741. The 6-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart gave a concert in the Pálffy Palace in 1762. In 1764 the first German newspaper in Hungary, the Pressburger Zeitung, began publication (which ceased in 1929), and on 1 January 1780.the first newspaper in Hungarian, Magyar hírmondó was published here.
The population increased by 200% between 1720 and 1780, and by 1782 the population had reached 33,000 (out of which 29,223 were in the part of the town below the castle that had the free royal town status), thus making Pressburg the largest town in Hungary. In 1783, the first newspaper in Slovak, Presspurske Nowiny (which remained in circulation until 1787) was published and the first novel in Slovak, Rene mladenca prihody a skusenosti ("The Adventures and Experiences of the Youth Rene") by Jozef Ignác Bajza, was published.
In 1775, Coronation Hill was built by Maria Theresa from soil of Hungary's 64 counties. The new monarch had to ride to the crowning hill and swish their blade towards the four cardinal points. However, in 1783, under the reign of Joseph II, the Crown Jewels were taken to Vienna, and many central offices moved to Buda, which were followed by a big part of the nobility. From here on Pressburg was only the coronation town and the seat of the Hungarian diet. The population decreased and the economic situation of the town deteriorated until 1811.
From 1784 to 1800, the General Seminary (a school for Catholic clergy) was based in Pressburg Castle. One of the notable students at this time was Anton Bernolák, who published in 1787 the first Slovak language standard. Another educational institution in Pressburg was the Royal Academy, which moved to the city from Trnava in 1787. In 1803, a separate Department of Czechoslovak Speech and Literature was created (from the Institute of Czechoslovak Speech and Literature founded in 1801) at the Lutheran Lyceum.
Pressburg also played a role in early 19th-century European politics. In 1805, the fourth and best-known Treaty of Pressburg was signed by Austria and France after Napoleon I's victory in the Battle of Austerlitz. Four years later, Napoleon's army besieged and bombarded the city and Napoleon himself visited Pressburg. Dévény Castle was turned into a ruin by the French troops in 1809 and Pressburg Castle was inadvertently destroyed by fire in 1811 (remaining in ruins until the 1950s).
In 1820, the 9-year-old Franz Liszt played in De Pauli's Palace. Five years later, István Széchenyi offered his yearly income to establish the Hungarian National Learned Society (now the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) in Pozsony. In 1829, the Czech-Slav Society (also called the Society for the Czechoslovak Language and Literature) was created by students of the Lutheran Lyceum, which later became an important organization in the Slovak national movement. Ľudovít Štúr also began studying at the Lyceum during this period, spending 20 years there. In 1843 he codified the present-day Slovak language standard. The industrialisation of the town began with regular steamship transport on the Danube in 1830. Ten years later the first (horse-)railway line in Hungary and present-day Slovakia was built from Pressburg to the town of Svätý Jur, north of Bratislava. Later, it extended to Trnava and Sereď (1846).
1835: The first champagne was made by Esch and Co in Pressburg in Hungary
1837: The First middle-class casino (an elite club), (Mágnás Kör or Pozsonyi Casino) was founded by István Széchenyi.
1843: Sándor Petőfi lived in the city. He worked as part of the Diet's administrative staff.
1843–1844: The Hungarian language was proclaimed the official language in legislation, public administration and teaching by the Diet.
1847–1848: Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria opened the Diet in the Primate's Palace's mirror room, addressing the members in Hungarian.
1848 (16 March): Lajos Batthyány and Lajos Kossuth proposed political reforms to the emperor. Lajos Kossuth proclaimed "Hungary reborn" from the hotel Zöldfa (English: Greenwood)'s balcony the next day. Ferdinand I of Austria appointed Lajos Batthyány to form a new Hungarian government.
1848 (18 March): The Diet declared the new Hungarian constitution and abolishes serfdom.
1848: (11 April): Ferdinand I of Austria signed (in the Primate Palace's Mirror Room) the so-called March Laws, by which serfdom was partly abolished in Hungary. Then he dissolved the Diet. That was the last Hungarian Diet convened in Pressburg, since it was then transferred to Budapest.
1848–1849: During the 1848 Revolution the Hungarian Nation Guard was formed by Henrik Justi in the city. This army defeated Jozef Miloslav Hurban's Slovak volunteers near Senec. On 7 October 1848, Josip Jelačić tried to cross the Danube after his army lost the Battle of Pákozd, but Pressburg's citizens destroyed the pontoon bridge. Lajos Kossuth appointed Artúr Görgey the commander-in-chief of the Hungarian army in Pressburg. But the Hungarian army lost the Battle of Schwechat and Prince of Windischgraetz's Austrian army entered the city without fighting on 18 December 1848. After the 1848 Revolution was defeated, the tribunal organized by Field Marshal Julius Jacob von Haynau sentenced 149 people to prison and 14 people to death. The 13 Martyrs of Arad's execution orders were also signed by Haynau there.
1848: A railway connection to Vienna was established.
1849: The City Council created a new (fourth) city district, Mesto Márie Terézie, by incorporating the independent villages of Zuckermandel and Podhradie, beginning the expansion of the city.
1850: A railway connection to Budapest was established.
Late 19th century: New prosperity was arose, partly thanks to mayor Henrik Justi and banker Theodor Edl (who, during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, had been political opponents). This period witnessed considerable modernization of infrastructure in Pressburg, including new sewerage and gas-works in 1856, the beginnings of a telephone and electrical lighting system in 1884, a new water supply system, the first permanent bridge over the Danube in 1891 (Starý most), the development of a tram system in 1895, and the introduction of public electricity in 1902. The city also industrialized, with the foundation of a chemical factory known today as Istrochem in 1873 and an oil refinery known today as Slovnaft in 1895. As a result, during the last decades of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, Pressburg was the second most industrialized town of the Kingdom of Hungary.
1866: The Battle of Lamač in Pressburgh, the last battle of the Austro-Prussian War.
1867: After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Henrik Justi, the former leader of the 1848 Hungarian Nation Guard in the city, became the mayor.
1870: Coronation Hill was rebuilt by the city council's order.
1886 (22 Sept): The city theater (today's Slovak National Theatre) was opened. Kálmán Tisza, Hungarian Prime Minister, and his whole government (as well as writer Mór Jókai) took part in this ceremony with the opera Bánk bán. The gala performance was conducted by Ferenc Erkel.
1897 (15 May): A statue of Maria Theresa made by János Fadrusz was erected on the Coronation Hill square. Franz Joseph I of Austria and his family took part in the dedication's ceremony.
In 1905 Philipp Lenard, the Hungarian-German physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics for his research on cathode rays and the discovery of many of their properties, visited Pressburg. In the same year, Ján Bahýľ, a Slovak inventor, flew his petrol-engine helicopter in Pressburg, reaching a height of 4 metres for more than 1,500 metres (4,900 ft). A
After World War I, began dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. U.S. president Woodrow Wilson and the United States played a major role in the establishment of the new Czechoslovak state. In a blatant attempt to appeal to the Allies, American Slovaks proposed rename the city “Wilsonovo mesto” (Wilson City), after Woodrow Wilson.
On 28 October 1918, Czechoslovakia was proclaimed, but its borders were not settled for several months. The dominant Hungarian and German population tried to prevent annexation of the city to Czechoslovakia and declared it a free city, while the Hungarian Prime Minister Károlyi protested against the "Czech invasion". This Hungarian narrative was debunked by the Slovak National Assembly in 15 November, who pointed out the presence of Slovak soldiers and officers among the legionaries and declared their presence as the "defensive action of the Slovaks themselves, to end the anarchy caused by the flight of the Hungarians." The Entente drew a provisional demarcation line, this was revealed to the Hungarian government on December 23, in the document known as the Vix Note. The 33rd regiment arrived from Italy and began to advance on 30 December. The minister for the administration of Slovakia, V. Šrobár, requested to negotiate a peaceful surrender of Bratislava to the Czecho-Slovak troops, through sheriff S. Zoch. Afterwards, General Piccione ordered the legionaries to enter Bratislava on 1 January 1919, and by 2 January all important civil and military buildings were in Czechoslovak hands. The city became the seat of Slovakia's political organs and organizations and became Slovakia's capital on 4 February. The (Hungarian) Elisabeth University was originally based here, before becoming the Slovak Comenius University after the Czechoslovakian state requisitioned it on 6 January.
On 12 February 1919, According to Hungarian politician Marcell Jankovics, the Czechoslovak Legions opened fire on the unarmed demonstrators. Slovak sources do not deny the shooting, but add that the Legionaries were defending themselves from violent and aggressive behavior of the demonstrators. A contemporary Slovak language newspaper reported that "a mob spat on our soldiers, tore down badges from their hats, physically attacked them and shot on them from windows." According to Hungarian historian Attila Simon, the intervention by the Czechoslovak soldiers firing on the peaceful demonstrators caused 8 deaths and 14 injuries, while Slovak historian Marián Hronský mentions 6 dead and several injured, including the Czechoslovak military commander who was left wounded by Hungarian demonstrators.
On 27 March, the town's official new name became "Bratislava" – instead of "Prešporok" (Slovak) / "Pressburg" (German) / "Pozsony" (Hungarian).
On 4 May Milan Rastislav Štefánik, the French–Slovak general, died in an airplane crash near Bratislava (/Pressburg). On 26–27 October 1921, the statue of Maria Theresa, the Austrian Empress, was destroyed by Slovakian nationalists and the members of the Sokol Movement.
Between 1928 and 1930 the Hotel Carlton was built in the place of Hotel Zöldfa, on Séta square (now Hviezdoslavovo square). Hotel Zöldfa had included Lajos Kossuth, Franz Joseph I, Alfred Nobel, and Albert Einstein amongst its guests. The 1930 census showed that the Hungarian population had decreased to under 20% of the city, and Hungarian language signs were removed. Between 1938 (October) – 1939 (March), Bratislava became the seat of government of the autonomous Slovakia within Czechoslovakia (see e.g. Jozef Tiso). Between 1938 (November) – 1945, the future Petržalka borough was occupied by Nazi Germany, and from October 1938 to April 1945, the future Devín borough was part of the Lower Austria area of the German Third Reich. After the break-up of Czechoslovakia, Bratislava became the capital of the First Slovak Republic in 1939. By 1945, most of the city's approximately 15,000 Jews had been removed and sent to concentration camps. The Bratislava oil district, including the Apollo oil refinery, was bombed on 9 September 1944 during the German occupation. The Soviet Red Army took Bratislava on 4 April 1945.
After the war, most of the German population were expelled (some Germans had already been evacuated by German authorities). In 1946, Jews living in the city were attacked during the Partisan Congress riots.
In 1946, the city incorporated the neighbouring villages of Devín, Dúbravka, Lamač, Petržalka, Prievoz (now part of Ružinov), Rača, and Vajnory (Karlova Ves had been annexed in 1944). The so-called Bratislava bridgehead on the right bank of the Danube was enlarged in 1947 with the hitherto Hungarian villages of Jarovce, Rusovce and Čunovo, in accord with the Paris Peace Conference, which transferred these villages to Czechoslovakia, on the grounds that Bratislava needed space for growth. After the Communists seized power in February 1948, the city became part of the Eastern Bloc. Several present-day cultural institutions were established (first films made in the town in 1948; Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra founded in 1949; Slovak National Gallery in 1951, Slovak Academy of Sciences in 1953, Bratislava Gallery in 1959, Slovak Television in 1956), several factories and landmarks were built (sometimes at the expense of the historical cityscape) – Slavín in 1960, Kamzík TV Tower in the 1970s, reconstruction of the Bratislava Castle in 1953–62, and Nový Most, the second bridge over the Danube, in 1972; and factories (Bratislavské automobilové závody and Slovnaft). The city was also affected by the unsuccessful Czechoslovak attempt to liberalize the Communist regime in 1968. Shortly after that, the city became capital of the Slovak Socialist Republic, a part of federalized Czechoslovakia, after the signing of the Law of Federation at the Bratislava Castle in 1968. Since the 1960s, construction of the huge prefab panel buildings had been ongoing. The city also expanded once more in 1972, annexing villages of Jarovce, Rusovce, Čunovo, Devínska Nová Ves, Záhorská Bystrica, Vrakuňa and Podunajské Biskupice. The third bridge over the Danube, called Prístavný most (Harbour Bridge) was built in 1985. The fall of the Communist regime was anticipated by the candle demonstration in 1988, which was violently scattered by the police.
In November 1989 the city became one of the centres of the Velvet Revolution; Alexander Dubček held his first speech in the city since 1970, and (one day before demonstrations in Prague), Slovak students rallied against the Communist regime on 16 November 1989; further demonstrations would follow. The first non-Communist political party, "Public Against Violence" (Verejnosť proti násiliu, VPN) was established on 21 November.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Bratislava was plagued by a rise in criminality. From 6 October 1990 to 16 July 1991 Bratislava had two active serial killers – Ondrej Rigo and Jozef Slovák.
In 1991 the factory of the automaker Volkswagen was founded in Bratislava (until 1994 as a joint venture with the Bratislavské automobilové závody); the fourth bridge over the Danube, Most Lafranconi, was built. On 17 July 1992 the Declaration of Independence of the Slovak Nation was adopted by the Slovak National Council (called National Council of the Slovak Republic since 1994). Six days later the prime ministers of the two constituent republics of Czechoslovakia agree to split the country into two independent states; the Constitution of Slovakia was adopted 1 September and signed at Bratislava Castle 3 September. After the Dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 the city was declared the capital of independent Slovakia.
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.
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 a 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.
Finally, it was decided to restore the castle. Archaeological and architectural research started in 1953, and long restoration works began in 1957. The restoration was done to the last (Baroque) state of the main building, but at many places, older (Gothic, Renaissance) preserved elements or parts have been restored. The Theresianum has not been renovated, and the F. A. Hillebrandt building of 1762 was restored only around the year 2000. The Slovak painter Janko Alexy gained recognition for his work on the castle. Construction was halted in August 1968, when the castle was occupied by Warsaw Pact troops as part of the Prague Spring. On 28 October 1968, however, the Federation Law, turning the centralist state of Czechoslovakia into a federation of a Czech Socialist Republic and a Slovak Socialist Republic, was signed in the Federation Hall of the castle. On 3 September 1992, the new constitution of independent Slovakia was signed in the Knights Hall.
Since 1968, the castle has housed exhibitions of the Slovak National Museum, and at the same time, its rooms have been used by the National Council of the Slovak Republic for presentation purposes. A new restoration has been planned for years, because since 1968, only minor adaptations have been performed, such as the 1988 creation of the Treasure Chamber, the 1995 replacement of glass in the arcades of the solemn staircase, and the 1996–97 complete repair of the roof. The last minor adaptations occurred on the occasion of the Bush-Putin Bratislava summit, in February 2005. A massive reconstruction was started in 2008 and was expected to last five years and cost 1.5–2 billion Slovak korunas (47.06–62.75 million euro).
On 6 June 2010, the reconstruction of the Honorary Courtyard of Bratislava Castle was completed, with a nationally televised unveiling ceremony of an equestrian statue of Svatopluk I by sculptor Ján Kulich.
In Bratislava, Slovakia, Michael's Gate (Slovak: Michalská brána, German: Michaelertor, Hungarian: Mihály kapu) 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 (Rybná brána, Fischertor, Halász kapu). 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 (Vydrická brána, Weidritzer Tor, Vödric kapu), 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 centerpiece 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.
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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.
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 a 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.
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
Other buildings
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 center 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 the territory of 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.
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 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.
Since some of the Renaissance changes were done in haste (especially the wooden roof), as early as in 1616, a new, gradual Early Baroque reconstruction started, based on a design by the main imperial architect Giovanni Battista Carlone. The works were intensified in 1635 and finished around 1647. It was mostly financed by Count Paul Pálffy, the captain of the castle and head of Pozsony county. The look the castle received through this conversion is basically the one it has kept to the present. The northern and western part of the main building were newly built and a new, third floor was added; the main entrance was shifted back to the middle of the wall; the ancient fortifications were improved; the chapel was shifted from the southern part to the northern part (today's Music Hall); and two new towers were added—yielding in sum the present four towers in the corners. As a reward for not having misappropriated state funds during the conversion, the diet appointed Pálffy lifelong captain of Pressburg Castle, head of Pozsony county, and usufructuary of the castle (which remained in possession of the crown), in 1650. One year later, the emperor made those functions and titles hereditary for the Pálffys.
In 1653, all wooden ceilings turned out to be defective and had to be replaced in the following years, so that precious paintings placed on them got lost. Ten years later, facing one of the frequent Turkish attacks to the territory of Slovakia, the fortifications were improved under the leadership of military engineer Josef Priami of the Imperial Court in Vienna; further improvements of the fortifications followed around 1673. They ended with the final defeat of the Turks at Vienna in 1683. In 1703, barracks were built in the northeast of the site, and the armoury was turned into barracks as well. The present-day Vienna Gate was constructed on the occasion of the coronation of Emperor Charles VI in 1712, and it has been used as the main entrance to the castle since then.
When Maria Theresa of Austria became the queen of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1740, she promised to the nobles of the kingdom that she would have a residence both in Pressburg and in Austria. A corresponding conversion of the defensive castle into a modern royal residence was performed between 1761 and 1766.
Minor changes were made as early as 1740: besides various changes in the interior, a large garden was added in the northern part of the site, and Emperor Francis I (Maria Theresa's husband, who was interested in botany) created a small garden to the east of the castle building. The chief designer until 1757 was J. B. Martinelli.
Major changes inside the castle (in the rococo style) were begun in 1760. The chief designer between 1761 and 1762 was Franz Anton Hillebrandt. A new single-story building for the kitchen, servants, and horses was added to the western wall of the castle. Because the water supply for the castle was not sufficient, Maria Theresa had Johann Wolfgang von Kempelen build a special water pipe drawing water from a tank in the town at the Danube bank, using pumps. The stairs throughout the castle were rebuilt with a lower gradient, on Maria Theresa's request, to enable her to ride her horse upon them. The result of these changes, as for the exterior of the palace itself and the site gates, was very similar to Bratislava Castle as it stands today.
Due to disputes with Hungarian nobles, Maria Theresa did not appoint a palatine, who used to represent the nobles, and instead in 1765 appointed a governor for the Kingdom of Hungary, who obeyed the queen. Bratislava Castle became his seat, and the office of the county head left the castle. The second governor was Albert of Saxe-Teschen, from 1765, the queen's son-in-law—the husband of her favorite daughter, Marie Christine of Austria. Albert and Maria Christine moved to the castle in 1766. Since both of them were promoters of culture and science, the castle and the town became places of frequent events and visits in the sphere of culture and science.
Because the governor did not have enough space, a new palace (later called the Theresianum) was built at the eastern wall of the castle building in 1767—1770, designed by F. A. Hillebrandt in the classic style. Its furnishings were expensive and precious and included hundreds of objects of art. The first floor was home to a family gallery, which later became the basis of today's Albertina Gallery in Vienna.
In addition, a winter riding school was added at the northern end of the castle site, a summer riding school was situated directly in the castle yard, both castle gardens were adapted (in the Schönbrunn style), and night lighting using oil lanterns was introduced on the access road to the castle for the first time in history. In 1770, Maria Theresa herself ordered further valuable paintings and furniture to be provided to both the main castle and the Theresianum, and the governor moved into the completed building.
The office of governor of the Kingdom of Hungary was re-abolished in 1781 by the new king, Joseph II, and Albert of Sachsen-Teschen left the castle and took many parts of the equipment away. The (present-day Albertina Gallery) art collection went partly to Vienna and partly to Belgium, where Albert became a new governor. Other objects moved mostly to Vienna. In 1783, Pressburg ceased to be the seat of central authorities of the kingdom; they were moved to Buda (now Budapest). The crown jewels of the Kingdom of Hungary were moved to the Hofburg in Vienna.
In 1784, the Theresianum, some other secondary buildings of the site, and the gardens were adapted, as the castle became a "general seminary", which was a type of state school for Catholic priests introduced by Joseph II. The general seminary of Pressburg Castle played an important role in Slovakia's history, having educated many important Slovak intellectuals, such as Anton Bernolák, the author of the first successful codification of the Slovak standard language.
In 1802, the general seminary moved to another place, and the castle was assigned to the military as a barracks. This was the beginning of its end. The rococo interiors of the castle were adapted in order to house some 1,500 soldiers. In 1809, Pressburg and the castle were bombarded by Napoleon's troops. On 28 May 1811, the castle burst into flames caused by carelessness of garrison soldiers; the fire spread to parts of the town.
The destroyed castle gradually deteriorated, and the military sold parts of the main buildings as construction materials to the surrounding areas. Between the two world wars, attempts were made to demolish the castle to build government offices and a university district on the castle hill and in its surroundings in the first Czechoslovak Republic and the first Slovak Republic. Many parts of the site continued to be used as barracks and adapted accordingly until 1946.
In 1946, the ruin was opened to the public. Two years later, the town constructed an amphitheater in the northern part of the castle site; this remained in use for some fifteen years. Films were shown there in the summer.
Finally, it was decided to restore the castle. Archaeological and architectural research started in 1953, and long restoration works began in 1957. The restoration was done to the last (Baroque) state of the main building, but at many places, older (Gothic, Renaissance) preserved elements or parts have been restored. The Theresianum has not been renovated, and the F. A. Hillebrandt building of 1762 was restored only around the year 2000. The Slovak painter Janko Alexy gained recognition for his work on the castle. Construction was halted in August 1968, when the castle was occupied by Warsaw Pact troops as part of the Prague Spring. On 28 October 1968, however, the Federation Law, turning the centralist state of Czechoslovakia into a federation of a Czech Socialist Republic and a Slovak Socialist Republic, was signed in the Federation Hall of the castle. On 3 September 1992, the new constitution of independent Slovakia was signed in the Knights Hall.
Since 1968, the castle has housed exhibitions of the Slovak National Museum, and at the same time, its rooms have been used by the National Council of the Slovak Republic for presentation purposes. A new restoration has been planned for years, because since 1968, only minor adaptations have been performed, such as the 1988 creation of the Treasure Chamber, the 1995 replacement of glass in the arcades of the solemn staircase, and the 1996–97 complete repair of the roof. The last minor adaptations occurred on the occasion of the Bush-Putin Bratislava summit, in February 2005. A massive reconstruction was started in 2008 and was expected to last five years and cost 1.5–2 billion Slovak korunas (47.06–62.75 million euro).
On 6 June 2010, the reconstruction of the Honorary Courtyard of Bratislava Castle was completed, with a nationally televised unveiling ceremony of an equestrian statue of Svatopluk I by sculptor Ján Kulich.
Bratislava is the capital and largest city of Slovakia and the fourth largest of all cities on Danube river. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, some sources estimate it to be more than 660,000—approximately 140% of the official figures. 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 center and capital of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1563 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 of Slovakia's large businesses and financial institutions have headquarters there.
GDP at purchasing power parity is about three times higher than in other Slovak regions. Bratislava receives around one million tourists every year, mostly from the Czech Republic, Germany, and Austria.
Bratislava currently the capital of Slovakia and the country's largest city, has existed for about a thousand years. Because of the city's strategic geographical location, it was an important European hub due to its proximity to the advanced cultures of the Mediterranean and the Orient as well as its link to the rest of Europe, which were possible by the Danube River.
In the area where present-day Bratislava lies, three skeletons of the (Epi)Pliopithecus vindobonensis were found in the borough Devínska Nová Ves in 1957, dating to 25–15 million years ago. Teeth of the Griphopithecus suessi (formerly known as Sivapithecus darwiny or Dryopithecus darwiny), dating 14–10 million years ago, were also found in Devínska Nová Ves, this time in 1902. From the Paleolithic period, hand-axes and other stone tools of Homo heidelbergensis (from the periods about 0.45 million years and about 0.3 million years ago) and of Neanderthal man were found.
The first known permanent settlements on the town's territory (Linear Ceramics Culture) was during the Neolithic period. However, during the Early Stone Age there was already a settlement in the general area. But this was not within the present territory of the city. The first known fortified settlement on the area of later medieval castle of Bratislava appeared in Eneolithic. In the Bronze Age there were settlements from both older and younger (Urnfield cultures) part of the period. On the area of later Devín castle one finds important clues to the final period of the Bronze Age (Podoli Culture), when a fortified settlement arose on the strategic place: rock-cliff over river Morava joining river Danube.
The early Iron Age brought a shift of the settlements focus again to the area of today's historical centre and the castle of Bratislava. This period is considered an epilogue to Central European pre-history and this is attributed to the migration of the Thracian tribes, which brought with them their version of the Hellenic civilization. Many archaeological finds support the theory that both the castle-hill and the area of the town (on an important river-crossing) formed an important seat of local Hallstatt Culture and that the richly furnished mounds (barrows) excavated on eastern suburbs of the city may have been burial grounds of princes.
The La Tène period is defined as from 450 BC to 50 BC. Celts (more exactly the tribe of Boii) formed between 125 and 50 BC an important Celtic oppidum (fortified town) with a mint in the area of the castle hill and the historical centre. There is an acropolis on the castle hill and some settlements below (crafts) and around it (farming). Bratislava then became a genuine town for the first time in history (it will become a de facto town again in the 9th century AD and then again in the 11th century). The most notable finds are represented by silver coins, bearing inscriptions (biatecs in most cases). Biatec may have been the name of the local prince who organized the minting or the name of the place itself. After the bloody defeat at the hands of Dacian forces under the leadership of King Burebista (shortly after the middle of the 1st century BC) the remaining Celts retreated to the site of Devín, creating a smaller, more easily protected hill-fort settlement. The arrival of Germans from the west forced the rest of the Celts to seek protection under the Romans on the other (right) side of Danube.
From the 1st to 4th centuries the border of the Roman Empire (Limes Romanus) ran along the Danube. The northern side belonged to the Free Barbaricum (German tribes – Marcomanni) and southern side belonged to Rome. Under the suburb of Rusovce, the remains of the Roman border town Gerulata have been excavated, as well as cemeteries and farming background of the town (Villa Rusticas). Despite belonging officially to Barbaricum, several sites of Roman presence are to be found on the area of the city. There is, for example, the case of the Devín Castle, which historical records such as the Chronicle of Fulda, alluded to as the impregnable Roman military garrison called Dowina. Traces of Roman presence also include Stupava, a trading station and Dúbravka, which is known for the remains of Roman baths (attempt to build Villa Rustica?).
The Slavs arrived in the area between the 5th and 6th centuries during the Migration Period (375-568). Recently, archaeologists found a carbonized loaf of bread at Devin and its age was estimated to be older than the Slavic settlement but still fell within the period of the migration of nations.
In 568 the Eurasian Avars arrived in the area. After a successful insurrection of the Slavs (probably at Bratislava-Devín) against Avarian rule in this region, Samo was made King of the Slavs in 623, establishing the first known Slavic political entity, Samo's Empire, which lasted until 658. From the 8th century until 907 the Pressburg fortress as well as the Dowina (Devín) Castle are important centres of the Principality of Nitra.
In 864 the first written reference to the Devín Castle (Dowina) appears in the Fuldish Annals. Around 900 it was probably owned by the (originally) Lower Pannonian prince Braslav (Bräslav, Brazlaw) - or by a magnate of the same name - who was a vassal of Bavaria (Germany). Earlier, it was thought that Bräslav was the person who gave the town Bratislava its German name Brezalauspurc (see 907), later Pressburg, and maybe also its new Slovak name Bratislava; nowadays, it is assumed that Pressburg/Brezalauspurc is a distortion of Predeslausburg, a name derived from Predslav, who was (according to some historians) the ruler of Bratislava around 900 and the 3rd son of the Great Moravian king Svätopluk; the modern Slovak name Bratislava, however, is assumed to be derived (by mistake) from the name of the Czech ruler Bretislav I. The first written reference to Bratislava (as Brezalauspurc) appears in 1837 by J. Safarik Slovak historian. The Bavarians were totally defeated by the Magyars; as a result, the Frankish East March dissolved and was occupied by the Magyars (907–955). Pressburg then became part of emerging medieval Hungary.
From 1000 to the early 13th century a market settlement (the future town centre) grew below the Pozsony Castle (first written reference in 1151) and became an important centre in the early 13th century. Further settlements in the surrounding areas followed. The Castle became one of the best fortifications in Hungary because of its position, and (along with the city) became a site of frequent attacks and battles, and a place of frequent stay by Hungarian kings. Around 1000 the Pozsony county (comitatus), one of the first counties in Hungary, was founded, probably by Grand Prince Stephen I. Coins with the inscriptions "PHANUS REX" and "RESLAVVA CIV" have been found in Sweden; some scholars claim that the coins were minted in "(p)RESLAVVA CIV(itas)" or "(b)RESLAVVA CIV(itas)" (i.e., in the town of Bratislava), but other authors point out that no coins of this type have been found on the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary, their weight and diameter differ from King Stephen's other coins and their inscriptions are confused which suggest that they are counterfeit coins minted abroad on the sample of other coins that had been minted following the patterns of King Stephen's coins with the inscriptions "STEPHANUS REX" and "REGIA CIVITAS".
In 1030 the Czech duke Břetislav I, participating in a campaign of the German emperor Konrad II against Hungary, devastated present-day western Slovakia and undertook an attack against the Pozsony castle but was defeated by the Hungarian king. 12 years later Břetislav I and the troops of the German king Henry III temporarily conquered Pozsony. Henry undertook a new invasion in 1043.
In 1052 the German king Henry III besieged Pozsony for 2 months without success, but caused considerable damage to the castle. The following year, Pope Leo IX personally visited the town to achieve a peace between Henry and the Hungarian king. In 1073 and 1074 Hungarian king Solomon, who was based at Pozsony castle during his fighting against Géza and Duke Ladislaus, had the castle reconstructed. Hungarians settled in the market settlement below the castle in several waves in the 12th and 13th centuries, joining the previously predominantly Slovak inhabitants there[citation needed]. In 1108 the German king Henry V, along with the Czech duke Svatopluk, failed to conquer Pozsony/Pressburg castle. In 1109 a new attack of[clarification needed] the Czechs (undertaken as a revenge for a Hungarian attack of Moravia) failed. Boris, who claimed the throne against King Géza I of Hungary (although his mother had been removed by her husband, King Coloman of Hungary because of adultery), besieged and conquered Pressburg Castle in 1146. The Hungarian king has to buy it back. The Hungarian king Stephen III was living in Pozsony castle in the 1160s and had its fortification improved. Participants of the Third Crusade to the Holy Land, led by the German king Frederick I Barbarossa, gathered at Pozsony castle in 1189.
In 1241 and 1242 the Mongols failed to conquer the fortified castle and the town below it, but temporarily devastated the surrounding settlements. The castle was adapted after these attacks. After 1242, German colonists came to the town and gradually their number increased, so that until the late 19th century they represented by far the largest ethnic group in the town. In 1271 and 1273–1276 the town was captured by the King of Bohemia, Ottakar II in connection with fighting between Hungary and Bohemia because of Styria. In this connection, the (1st) Peace of Pressburg was signed in 1271.
The city was captured by the Hungarian nobleman and palatine Nicolaus von Güssing in 1285–1286, who (temporarily) burned down the castle in 1286, but his revolt against the king was defeated. In 1287–1291 the city was captured by the Austrian duke Albert of Habsburg. Albert was defeated by the Hungarian nobleman Matthew III Csák of Trenčín, who was the leader of Pozsony and Trenčín counties at that time and Pozsony belonged to Hungary again.
The town (the part below the castle) was conferred its first (known) town privileges by the Hungarian king Andrew III in 1291. Earlier town privileges are not known, but probable, because Pressburg has been called a "town" as early as around 1250. After 1291, the town received many privileges from Hungarian kings, especially from the emperor Sigismund in the 15th century. After the death of the Hungarian king Andrew III, Pressburg was annexed by Austria in 1301, because Andrew's widow gave the town to the Habsburgs. The Habsburgs returned it to Hungary in 1322, but occupied it again later. It is only in 1338 that the town finally became part of Hungary again. In 1405 the town was declared a free royal town by King Sigismund of Luxemburg. Not only Pressburg but all towns[citation needed] in Hungary got this status (meaning that they received "collective nobility", i.e. the status of a feudal lord with all its privileges) because Sigismund wanted to restrain the increasing power of the (true) feudal lords in Hungary. The Hussites first appeared in 1428, when they burned down the suburbs of Pressburg. Negotiations held a year later in Pressburg between Sigismund of Luxemburg and the Hussites (in April and in June) failed. Between 1432 and 1434 the Hussites tried to conquer the city but their attacks failed. The first bridge over the Danube in Pressburg was built in 1434, but it was destroyed by floods next year. In 1434 and 1435 the amount of paymentsby Hungary, for which the Hussites would leave Slovakia, was officially negotiated. In 1436 Sigismund of Luxemburg awarded Pressburg the right to use its own coat of arms and orders to improve the fortification of the castle (because of the last Hussite invasion during that year). From 1439 to 1486 another bridge over the Danube existed in Pozsony, being washed away by flood in 1486.
Between 1440 and 1443 there was fighting between the castle of Pozsony, supporting king Ladislaus III of Poland, and the actual town of Pozsony below the castle hill, supporting (and owned by) queen Elisabeth. In 1442 Ladislaus settled at the castle and temporarily conquered the town, but was defeated by the Austrian emperor Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor supporting Elisabeth. Finally, in 1443 Elisabeth got the town back, but the castle remained in Ladislaus' hands till his death in 1444.
From 1465 until 1490 Pozsony was the seat of the first university in present-day Slovakia, the Universitas Istropolitana (often wrongly called Academia Istropolitana). From 1490 to 1526 Pressburg was a place of diplomatic negotiations under the Jagiellonian kings. In the summer of 1490 Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor drove the Hungarians from Austria, and even occupies Hungarian frontier territories, but he is compelled by want of money to retreat, and signed the Treaty of Pressburg (also called the (2nd) Peace of Pressburg) with the Hungarian King Ladislaus II on 7 November 1491. Under this treaty it is agreed that Hungary renounced Lower Austria and agreed that Maximilian should succeed to the crown in case Ladislaus left no legitimate male issue.
After the Battle of Mohács in 1526, where the Kingdom of Hungary was defeated by the expanding Ottoman Empire, the Turks besieged Pressburg 1529, but failed to conquer it. Two years later churches and hospitals outside the town wall were deliberately destroyed so that the Turks would not be able to see from there into the town behind the town wall. In the beginning of 1532 thousands of soldiers were sent to Pressburg as a protection against the Turks planning to attack Vienna. Pressburg was temporarily turned to a military camp. The Turks, seeing the military force in Pressburg, decide to attack Vienna from the south. In this period the city became a safe haven for the Holy Crown of Hungary, kept safe from Turkish and Habsburg hands.
As a consequence of Ottoman advances through Hungarian territory and the capture of Buda, the Pressburg designated as the capital of Royal Hungary in 1536. The Kingdom of Hungary was part of the Habsburg Monarchy from 1526 to 1918. Pressburg was also made a meeting place of the Hungarian Diet from 1542 to 1848 (with interruptions) and the coronation town for Hungarian kings and queens from 1536 to 1830 (in the St. Martin's Cathedral). The first coronation was that of King Maximilian of Habsburg, the last one the coronation of Ferdinand V. Altogether, 11 kings and 8 queens were crowned in the town. During Maria Theresa's 40-year reign, Bratislava - along with the rest of her empire - enjoyed sustained economic and social growth.
However, in the 17th century, the town was affected by anti-Habsburg uprisings. In addition, there was fighting with the Turks, floods, plagues and other disasters. The Evangelic Lutheran Lyceum (Evanjelické lýceum) (a kind of Protestant grammar school[clarification needed] and, in the 19th century, also a kind of university) was founded in 1607.
In 1606 (during the Stephen Bocskay Uprising), Bocskay troops occupied the surroundings of Pressburg. Gabriel Bethlen conquered Pressburg in 1619, as a part of the Bethlen uprising. He was defeated by imperial troops in 1621, and then besieged the town from 1621 to 1622. The (3rd) Peace of Pressburg between Gabriel Bethlen and the emperor Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor was signed in 1626, which put an end to the Bethlen anti-Habsburg uprising. From 1671 to 1677 Pressburg was seat of extraordinary courts against the Protestants and participants in the anti-Habsburg uprisings; e.g. a trial against the participants of the Wesselényi conspiracy takes place in 1671. In the Imre Thököly Uprising (1682–1683) Pozsony was the only town in present-day Slovakia that refused to capitulate to Thököly's troops. Finall, the town, but not the castle, capitulated in July 1683 and was only reconquered by Imperial troops after the Turks were defeated near Vienna (September 1683). The last of the uprisings that affected the town was in 1704 (within the Rákóczi Uprising), when Prince Eugene of Savoy managed to protect Pressburg from Rákóczi's troops, although the surroundings of the town wer totally destroyed.
Since the 18th century the city has been an important centre of the Slovak national and cultural movement (Slovak National Revival). The Great Plague Epidemic killed 3800 people in the years 1710 and 1711. Later the Holy Trinity column was erected in thanksgiving to God for its ending. In the 18th century, many new baroque buildings were erected, the economy flourished (first factory in 1728), and the first parks were established (see today's Hviezdoslavovo námestie). The town wall was demolished in 1775 to enable further expansion, the first city theatre was opened in 1776, and Pressburg became the largest and most important town in the territory of present-day Slovakia and Hungary. The first journal in Hungary, Mercurius Veridicus ex Hungaria, was published here in 1705 and the first regular newspaper in Hungary (written in Latin), Nova Posoniensia, was published in 1721–1722.
The Pragmatic Sanction law was enacted in 1713, which decided the Habsburg monarch's unity and that woman can inherit the Hungarian throne. Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned Queen Regnant of Hungary at St. Martin's Cathedral on 25 June 1741. The 6-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart gave a concert in the Pálffy Palace in 1762. In 1764 the first German newspaper in Hungary, the Pressburger Zeitung, began publication (which ceased in 1929), and on 1 January 1780.the first newspaper in Hungarian, Magyar hírmondó was published here.
The population increased by 200% between 1720 and 1780, and by 1782 the population had reached 33,000 (out of which 29,223 were in the part of the town below the castle that had the free royal town status), thus making Pressburg the largest town in Hungary. In 1783, the first newspaper in Slovak, Presspurske Nowiny (which remained in circulation until 1787) was published and the first novel in Slovak, Rene mladenca prihody a skusenosti ("The Adventures and Experiences of the Youth Rene") by Jozef Ignác Bajza, was published.
In 1775, Coronation Hill was built by Maria Theresa from soil of Hungary's 64 counties. The new monarch had to ride to the crowning hill and swish their blade towards the four cardinal points. However, in 1783, under the reign of Joseph II, the Crown Jewels were taken to Vienna, and many central offices moved to Buda, which were followed by a big part of the nobility. From here on Pressburg was only the coronation town and the seat of the Hungarian diet. The population decreased and the economic situation of the town deteriorated until 1811.
From 1784 to 1800, the General Seminary (a school for Catholic clergy) was based in Pressburg Castle. One of the notable students at this time was Anton Bernolák, who published in 1787 the first Slovak language standard. Another educational institution in Pressburg was the Royal Academy, which moved to the city from Trnava in 1787. In 1803, a separate Department of Czechoslovak Speech and Literature was created (from the Institute of Czechoslovak Speech and Literature founded in 1801) at the Lutheran Lyceum.
Pressburg also played a role in early 19th-century European politics. In 1805, the fourth and best-known Treaty of Pressburg was signed by Austria and France after Napoleon I's victory in the Battle of Austerlitz. Four years later, Napoleon's army besieged and bombarded the city and Napoleon himself visited Pressburg. Dévény Castle was turned into a ruin by the French troops in 1809 and Pressburg Castle was inadvertently destroyed by fire in 1811 (remaining in ruins until the 1950s).
In 1820, the 9-year-old Franz Liszt played in De Pauli's Palace. Five years later, István Széchenyi offered his yearly income to establish the Hungarian National Learned Society (now the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) in Pozsony. In 1829, the Czech-Slav Society (also called the Society for the Czechoslovak Language and Literature) was created by students of the Lutheran Lyceum, which later became an important organization in the Slovak national movement. Ľudovít Štúr also began studying at the Lyceum during this period, spending 20 years there. In 1843 he codified the present-day Slovak language standard. The industrialisation of the town began with regular steamship transport on the Danube in 1830. Ten years later the first (horse-)railway line in Hungary and present-day Slovakia was built from Pressburg to the town of Svätý Jur, north of Bratislava. Later, it extended to Trnava and Sereď (1846).
1835: The first champagne was made by Esch and Co in Pressburg in Hungary
1837: The First middle-class casino (an elite club), (Mágnás Kör or Pozsonyi Casino) was founded by István Széchenyi.
1843: Sándor Petőfi lived in the city. He worked as part of the Diet's administrative staff.
1843–1844: The Hungarian language was proclaimed the official language in legislation, public administration and teaching by the Diet.
1847–1848: Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria opened the Diet in the Primate's Palace's mirror room, addressing the members in Hungarian.
1848 (16 March): Lajos Batthyány and Lajos Kossuth proposed political reforms to the emperor. Lajos Kossuth proclaimed "Hungary reborn" from the hotel Zöldfa (English: Greenwood)'s balcony the next day. Ferdinand I of Austria appointed Lajos Batthyány to form a new Hungarian government.
1848 (18 March): The Diet declared the new Hungarian constitution and abolishes serfdom.
1848: (11 April): Ferdinand I of Austria signed (in the Primate Palace's Mirror Room) the so-called March Laws, by which serfdom was partly abolished in Hungary. Then he dissolved the Diet. That was the last Hungarian Diet convened in Pressburg, since it was then transferred to Budapest.
1848–1849: During the 1848 Revolution the Hungarian Nation Guard was formed by Henrik Justi in the city. This army defeated Jozef Miloslav Hurban's Slovak volunteers near Senec. On 7 October 1848, Josip Jelačić tried to cross the Danube after his army lost the Battle of Pákozd, but Pressburg's citizens destroyed the pontoon bridge. Lajos Kossuth appointed Artúr Görgey the commander-in-chief of the Hungarian army in Pressburg. But the Hungarian army lost the Battle of Schwechat and Prince of Windischgraetz's Austrian army entered the city without fighting on 18 December 1848. After the 1848 Revolution was defeated, the tribunal organized by Field Marshal Julius Jacob von Haynau sentenced 149 people to prison and 14 people to death. The 13 Martyrs of Arad's execution orders were also signed by Haynau there.
1848: A railway connection to Vienna was established.
1849: The City Council created a new (fourth) city district, Mesto Márie Terézie, by incorporating the independent villages of Zuckermandel and Podhradie, beginning the expansion of the city.
1850: A railway connection to Budapest was established.
Late 19th century: New prosperity was arose, partly thanks to mayor Henrik Justi and banker Theodor Edl (who, during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, had been political opponents). This period witnessed considerable modernization of infrastructure in Pressburg, including new sewerage and gas-works in 1856, the beginnings of a telephone and electrical lighting system in 1884, a new water supply system, the first permanent bridge over the Danube in 1891 (Starý most), the development of a tram system in 1895, and the introduction of public electricity in 1902. The city also industrialized, with the foundation of a chemical factory known today as Istrochem in 1873 and an oil refinery known today as Slovnaft in 1895. As a result, during the last decades of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, Pressburg was the second most industrialized town of the Kingdom of Hungary.
1866: The Battle of Lamač in Pressburgh, the last battle of the Austro-Prussian War.
1867: After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Henrik Justi, the former leader of the 1848 Hungarian Nation Guard in the city, became the mayor.
1870: Coronation Hill was rebuilt by the city council's order.
1886 (22 Sept): The city theater (today's Slovak National Theatre) was opened. Kálmán Tisza, Hungarian Prime Minister, and his whole government (as well as writer Mór Jókai) took part in this ceremony with the opera Bánk bán. The gala performance was conducted by Ferenc Erkel.
1897 (15 May): A statue of Maria Theresa made by János Fadrusz was erected on the Coronation Hill square. Franz Joseph I of Austria and his family took part in the dedication's ceremony.
In 1905 Philipp Lenard, the Hungarian-German physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics for his research on cathode rays and the discovery of many of their properties, visited Pressburg. In the same year, Ján Bahýľ, a Slovak inventor, flew his petrol-engine helicopter in Pressburg, reaching a height of 4 metres for more than 1,500 metres (4,900 ft). A
After World War I, began dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. U.S. president Woodrow Wilson and the United States played a major role in the establishment of the new Czechoslovak state. In a blatant attempt to appeal to the Allies, American Slovaks proposed rename the city “Wilsonovo mesto” (Wilson City), after Woodrow Wilson.
On 28 October 1918, Czechoslovakia was proclaimed, but its borders were not settled for several months. The dominant Hungarian and German population tried to prevent annexation of the city to Czechoslovakia and declared it a free city, while the Hungarian Prime Minister Károlyi protested against the "Czech invasion". This Hungarian narrative was debunked by the Slovak National Assembly in 15 November, who pointed out the presence of Slovak soldiers and officers among the legionaries and declared their presence as the "defensive action of the Slovaks themselves, to end the anarchy caused by the flight of the Hungarians." The Entente drew a provisional demarcation line, this was revealed to the Hungarian government on December 23, in the document known as the Vix Note. The 33rd regiment arrived from Italy and began to advance on 30 December. The minister for the administration of Slovakia, V. Šrobár, requested to negotiate a peaceful surrender of Bratislava to the Czecho-Slovak troops, through sheriff S. Zoch. Afterwards, General Piccione ordered the legionaries to enter Bratislava on 1 January 1919, and by 2 January all important civil and military buildings were in Czechoslovak hands. The city became the seat of Slovakia's political organs and organizations and became Slovakia's capital on 4 February. The (Hungarian) Elisabeth University was originally based here, before becoming the Slovak Comenius University after the Czechoslovakian state requisitioned it on 6 January.
On 12 February 1919, According to Hungarian politician Marcell Jankovics, the Czechoslovak Legions opened fire on the unarmed demonstrators. Slovak sources do not deny the shooting, but add that the Legionaries were defending themselves from violent and aggressive behavior of the demonstrators. A contemporary Slovak language newspaper reported that "a mob spat on our soldiers, tore down badges from their hats, physically attacked them and shot on them from windows." According to Hungarian historian Attila Simon, the intervention by the Czechoslovak soldiers firing on the peaceful demonstrators caused 8 deaths and 14 injuries, while Slovak historian Marián Hronský mentions 6 dead and several injured, including the Czechoslovak military commander who was left wounded by Hungarian demonstrators.
On 27 March, the town's official new name became "Bratislava" – instead of "Prešporok" (Slovak) / "Pressburg" (German) / "Pozsony" (Hungarian).
On 4 May Milan Rastislav Štefánik, the French–Slovak general, died in an airplane crash near Bratislava (/Pressburg). On 26–27 October 1921, the statue of Maria Theresa, the Austrian Empress, was destroyed by Slovakian nationalists and the members of the Sokol Movement.
Between 1928 and 1930 the Hotel Carlton was built in the place of Hotel Zöldfa, on Séta square (now Hviezdoslavovo square). Hotel Zöldfa had included Lajos Kossuth, Franz Joseph I, Alfred Nobel, and Albert Einstein amongst its guests. The 1930 census showed that the Hungarian population had decreased to under 20% of the city, and Hungarian language signs were removed. Between 1938 (October) – 1939 (March), Bratislava became the seat of government of the autonomous Slovakia within Czechoslovakia (see e.g. Jozef Tiso). Between 1938 (November) – 1945, the future Petržalka borough was occupied by Nazi Germany, and from October 1938 to April 1945, the future Devín borough was part of the Lower Austria area of the German Third Reich. After the break-up of Czechoslovakia, Bratislava became the capital of the First Slovak Republic in 1939. By 1945, most of the city's approximately 15,000 Jews had been removed and sent to concentration camps. The Bratislava oil district, including the Apollo oil refinery, was bombed on 9 September 1944 during the German occupation. The Soviet Red Army took Bratislava on 4 April 1945.
After the war, most of the German population were expelled (some Germans had already been evacuated by German authorities). In 1946, Jews living in the city were attacked during the Partisan Congress riots.
In 1946, the city incorporated the neighbouring villages of Devín, Dúbravka, Lamač, Petržalka, Prievoz (now part of Ružinov), Rača, and Vajnory (Karlova Ves had been annexed in 1944). The so-called Bratislava bridgehead on the right bank of the Danube was enlarged in 1947 with the hitherto Hungarian villages of Jarovce, Rusovce and Čunovo, in accord with the Paris Peace Conference, which transferred these villages to Czechoslovakia, on the grounds that Bratislava needed space for growth. After the Communists seized power in February 1948, the city became part of the Eastern Bloc. Several present-day cultural institutions were established (first films made in the town in 1948; Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra founded in 1949; Slovak National Gallery in 1951, Slovak Academy of Sciences in 1953, Bratislava Gallery in 1959, Slovak Television in 1956), several factories and landmarks were built (sometimes at the expense of the historical cityscape) – Slavín in 1960, Kamzík TV Tower in the 1970s, reconstruction of the Bratislava Castle in 1953–62, and Nový Most, the second bridge over the Danube, in 1972; and factories (Bratislavské automobilové závody and Slovnaft). The city was also affected by the unsuccessful Czechoslovak attempt to liberalize the Communist regime in 1968. Shortly after that, the city became capital of the Slovak Socialist Republic, a part of federalized Czechoslovakia, after the signing of the Law of Federation at the Bratislava Castle in 1968. Since the 1960s, construction of the huge prefab panel buildings had been ongoing. The city also expanded once more in 1972, annexing villages of Jarovce, Rusovce, Čunovo, Devínska Nová Ves, Záhorská Bystrica, Vrakuňa and Podunajské Biskupice. The third bridge over the Danube, called Prístavný most (Harbour Bridge) was built in 1985. The fall of the Communist regime was anticipated by the candle demonstration in 1988, which was violently scattered by the police.
In November 1989 the city became one of the centres of the Velvet Revolution; Alexander Dubček held his first speech in the city since 1970, and (one day before demonstrations in Prague), Slovak students rallied against the Communist regime on 16 November 1989; further demonstrations would follow. The first non-Communist political party, "Public Against Violence" (Verejnosť proti násiliu, VPN) was established on 21 November.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Bratislava was plagued by a rise in criminality. From 6 October 1990 to 16 July 1991 Bratislava had two active serial killers – Ondrej Rigo and Jozef Slovák.
In 1991 the factory of the automaker Volkswagen was founded in Bratislava (until 1994 as a joint venture with the Bratislavské automobilové závody); the fourth bridge over the Danube, Most Lafranconi, was built. On 17 July 1992 the Declaration of Independence of the Slovak Nation was adopted by the Slovak National Council (called National Council of the Slovak Republic since 1994). Six days later the prime ministers of the two constituent republics of Czechoslovakia agree to split the country into two independent states; the Constitution of Slovakia was adopted 1 September and signed at Bratislava Castle 3 September. After the Dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 the city was declared the capital of independent 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. The location provides excellent views of Bratislava, Austria and, in clear weather, parts of Hungary.