Bratislava

The area of Bratislava has been continuously inhabited for thousands of years, with first documented Neolithic settlements dating back to 5000 B.C., and traces of the human presence dating back even to Paleolithic. The first fortified town was established by the Celtic tribe of Boii in the 2nd century B.C. The significance of this ‘oppidum’ is evidenced by their minting of coins, including the famous silver ‘Biatec,’ which now serves as the emblem of Slovakia’s central bank.

After the Celts’ decline, the Danube River became a natural frontier between the Roman Empire and Germanic tribes. Atop the hills where Bratislava and Devin castles would later be built, the Romans established outposts to control river passage and protect the ‘Limes Romanus.’ The foundations of their ‘Gerulata’ fort and related artifacts can be seen today at a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Bratislava’s Rusovce district.

Slavic tribes settled the area during the Migration Period in the early Middle Ages, adopted Christianity, and created their states as early as in the 7th century. Bratislava Castle is mentioned in the Annals of Salzburg of 907 A.D. as the site where Hungarian tribes defeated East Frankish forces, marking the first known written reference to Bratislava.

For nearly a thousand years, Bratislava was part of the Hungarian Kingdom, and eventually the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It became a multicultural city with significant German and Jewish communities. Rulers granted it extensive city privileges, including the status of a free royal city in 1291 A.D., the right to a coat of arms in 1436 A.D., and the establishment of its first university, ‘Universitas Istropolitana,’ in 1467 A.D. In the 16th century, following the Ottoman victory at the Battle of Mohács in 1526 A.D., Bratislava became the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom, a coronation site for its kings and queens, and the seat of the Archbishop of Esztergom. Throughout three centuries, Bratislava played a critical role as a fortress on the Christian-Islamic frontier. In the 12th century, the forces of the Third Crusade led by Frederick I Barbarossa gathered at Bratislava Castle in 1189 A.D.

Despite its prominence, the city also faced significant turmoil. In the 17th century, Protestantism spread but was later suppressed, and an outbreak of plague in 1679 A.D., followed by cholera in 1712 A.D., drastically reduced the population. The 18th century marked a period of reconstruction: Queen Maria Theresa ordered a Baroque expansion of the castle and agreed to dismantle the medieval city walls to make way for new buildings. Notable developments included the Archbishop of Esztergom’s summer residence (now the Prime Minister’s seat), Count Grassalkovich’s palace (now the Presidential residence), the establishment of a public park (today’s Sad Janka Kráľa) on the Danube’s southern bank, and the construction of various manufactories.

After the end of Ottoman rule, Bratislava lost its status as the capital but remained the coronation city and seat of Parliament until the mid-19th century. In 1805, following the Battle of Austerlitz, the Peace of Bratislava was signed in the Mirror Hall of the Primate’s Palace between Napoleonic France and the Austrian Empire. Four years later, French artillery destroyed much of the medieval town. A fire in 1811 devastated Bratislava Castle and the Jewish quarter on Castle Hill. Despite that, the Pressburg Yeshiva led by Rabbi Chatam Sofer became the most influential yeshiva in Central Europe. In 1848, the last session of the Parliament in Bratislava abolished feudalism in the Hungarian Kingdom, and Bratislava witnessed the awakening of the Slovak identity and culture, as well as the nation’s political demands. 

After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the establishment of Czechoslovakia in 1918, Bratislava (called Poszony in Hungarian, Pressburg in German, and Presporok in Slovak) received its current name and was officially integrated into the young republic a year later at the Versailles Peace Conference. During the World War II, harsh persecutions and mass deportations decimated Bratislava’s Jewish community, and parts of the city suffered damage during Allied aerial strikes. Bratislava was liberated from Nazi control by the Red Army in April 1945.

Following the Communist coup in 1948, Czechoslovakia was isolated from the free world, and Bratislava—a historic crossroads of trade routes—was fenced off at key border points with Austria. A memorial for the victims of Communism who were killed while attempting to escape the totalitarian regime now stands under Devin Castle, at the confluence of the Morava and Danube rivers. 

In the process of the collapse of the Iron Curtain, people of Czechoslovakia brought down the regime in the so-called Velvet Revolution in 1989. Following the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia, Bratislava became the capital of an independent Slovakia on January 1, 1993. Slovakia has became member of the EU and NATO in 2004, and part of the Eurozone in 2009.