Main
Square (Hlavne
namestie)
Lined with handsome pastel-colored
baroque and renaissance buildings
– formerly merchant homes, now
many house foreign embassies. Notice
the statues around the Square,
especially Cumil, who looks up women’s
skirts from a manhole near an ice
cream stand. And smiling but tragic
Handsome Ignatius (Schone Naci), who
went insane after his fiance was killed
in a concentration camp
Michael’s
Gate (Michalska
brana)
The last remaining original
gate of the city’s fortified
walls, which were torn down
more than 200 years ago. Climb the
tower for a great rooftop
view of the city and peek
into the weapons museum and exhibit
about the city walls.
Old
Town Hall (Stara
Radnica)
On the Main Square has lovely patterned
roof tiles and a cannonball
fired by Napoleon’s troops into
one of its walls. The Municipal
History Museum is here – highlights:
instruments of torture and exhibit
of paintings and photos showing how
the city has changed in the past 150
years.
Palffy
Palace (Palffyho
palac)
Where Mozart played for Empress
Maria Theresa in 1762; includes
collection of excellent early
20th c. paintings of Slovak peasant
life.
Primate’s
Palace (Primacialny
palac)
18th c. neo-Classical pink palace
with 300 lb. archbishop’s hat
on top to indicate it was the winter
residence of the Archbishop
of Estergom (Hungary’s Rome).
Inside are valuable 17th c. tapestries.
Famous documents signed in
the palace’s Hall of Mirrors:
1805 treaty ending war between Napoleon
and Austro-Hungarian Empire; 1848
abolition of serfdom (similar to slavery);
1968 agreement by Soviets not to interfere
with Czechoslovakia's democratic reforms
known as the "Prague Spring"
(less than a month later, the Soviets
invaded Czechoslovakia).
St.
Martin’s Cathedral
(Dom sv. Martina)
Where Hungarian kings and
queens were crowned for nearly
300 years
Obchodna
Street
Good shops for handicrafts.
Good
Shepherd House (Domcek
u Dobreho pastiera)
Below Bratislava Castle, this pretty
Rococo wedding-cake slice
of a building (just 6 ft wide)
houses the Museum of Historic Clocks.
Trinity
Church (Kostol
Trinitarov)
Known for its magnificent trompe
l’oeil frescos.
Academia
Istropolitana University
A Gothic building
housing the first university in Slovakia
was founded by the King of Hungary
in 1465; today serves as school for
dramatic arts
Clares
Church (Kostol
Klarisky)
With beautiful Gothic spire
on one of the chapels, once a convent,
now a library and often used as concert
venue
Franciscan
Church and Monastery
(Kostol a Klastor Frantiskanov)
The oldest church in Bratislava,
built 1297 with Gothic belfry,
and altered several times. The Chape
of St. John the Evangelist is one
of the best examples of Gothic
architecture in the country.
In medieval times, mayors were elected
here.
Mirbach
Palace (Mirbachov
palac)
Fine Rococo building today houses
the City Gallery and its collection
of baroque art and visiting exhibits.
FOR
MORE OF WHAT TO SEE, check out DAYTRIPS
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