We were up bright and early on Sunday and had a nice start to the morning with a lovely and scenic boat ride down the Danube. Okay, perhaps we slept most of the ninety minute journey, but I'm sure the landscape along the river was quite nice. The boat we were on was rather submarine-like, which I found interesting, but it got us there, which was really my only requirement for a satisfactory boat ride.
Once there I knew that the Old Town was north of our dock, so we followed a few sporadic signs, noting how eerie everything felt because we hardly passed another soul. Also, despite reading about how the Old Town has been "lovingly restored", many of the buildings along the way were actually in a significant state of disrepair. To add to the slightly spectral sensation on this overcast day, we began to hear faint sounds of chanting. But I was pretty certain that we were still going in the right direction, so we continued on until we were held up by a religious procession.
It seemed as if the whole city was there following endlessly behind the monks in their habits, filling the entire street and sidewalks so that we couldn't pass. When the cavalcade finally began to thin we continued in the direction they had come where we found the information center I had been looking for to pick up a map. It had a suggested route to follow so for lack of a better plan we stuck to that. It took us on a pretty comprehensive tour of the Old Town, which started at the Primaciálny palác (Primate's Palace) and Stará radnica (Old Town Hall), respectively.
On the other side of the Old City Hall, to the left of a Gothic window on the lower part of the tower (which you can see in the picture), there's a cannonball embedded in the wall from the 1809 siege of Bratislava by Napoleon's army. There was a neat set of market stalls in the next square, Hlavné námestie (Main Square), which we lingered at for a while.
Continuing on we passed Františkánsky kostol, the oldest religious building in Bratislava which was consecrated in the presence of King Andrew II in 1297 and Michalská brána, Michael's Gate, which is the only remaining original gateway to the medieval city, though renovations in 1753-8 raised the Gothic tower to its current 167 feet with the addition of the Baroque cupola.
We continued down Michalská Street which was lined with cafés and shops, making our way eventually to St. Martin's Cathedral, Dóm sv. Martina. Eleven Hungarian kings and eight queens were crowned here between 1563 and 1830, and you can follow the coronation route through the Old Town which is marked by gold crowns embedded in the pavement, starting at St. Martin's. Inside the cathedral the presbytery has a really ornate net vault and there's some really vibrant stained glass, as well as a sculpture from 1734 of St. Martin in Hungarian garb cutting part of his cloak for a beggar. There were also some really neat carved animals decorating the choir stalls.
Stained glass from Viennese company K Geyling, second half of the 19th century
From there we took a roundabout way to Brataslava Castle, Bratislavský hrad, which brought us by Poor Clares Church which has a richly decorated spire with lots of crockets, gargoyles, and sculptures, though when we actually got there the church was quite bland. Though it must have had some inspirational qualities to it as Béla Bartók studied there when it was the Catholic Theological Seminary.
Although the cobbled street passing it, Kapitulská, is nice and passes by the only remaining part of the city walls (which is closed off), everything else back in this area was completely deserted and totally run down. As Andrew summed it up, "the area is completely derelict."
Again, that eerie feeling returned. Just two minutes away there was bustling and laughing from the street tables of the cafés, but here the sounds were strangely muted and not so much as a breeze stirred through the streets. We didn't linger there long but found a way across the pointless and noisy highway which passes between the cathedral and the castle. We climbed up to the castle, to find... well, not much of anything, to be honest. There was a lower castle square of sorts which you passed to reach the main entrance of the castle itself (respectively).
It seemed that they were doing some renovations around the whole place as a lot of it was fenced off, and the castle garden that was on their map was little more than a plot of dirt with a bunch of weeds. I bet it will be really nice when they finish it, though! Perhaps this is because the castle, first noted in history in 907, fortified in the 11th century, rebuilt in the 15th century, remodelled from 1552-60, and furnished in Rococo style in the mid-18th century, burnt down in 1811 and was only rebuilt in the 1950s. Thus I'll cut them some slack for not having a finished garden or much in the way of exhibitions. It also gets extra credit for having a phenomenal Danube overlook (which even beats Vienna).
Also in conjunction (I suspect) with the procession that we saw earlier, there was quite a cast of folks in soldier and traditional garb assembling.
We made our way back down to the Old Town to see what we could find in the way of lunch. We made our way back up the main street, checking menus along the way until we came across one that looked like it had acceptable fare. I had a good ol' traditional Slovakian dish called bryndzove halusky - really cheesy dumplings topped with sausage and bacon. Afterwards we just happened to notice a chocolate shop across the street where I got a cup of hot chocolate. Keep in mind: hot chocolate (in most of Europe from what I can tell) is not actually the nice steaming mug of hot cocoa everyone makes during Christmas or after a cold day of skiing, but rather a cup of melted chocolate. Literally. As we sat there savoring the delicious dessert and watching the passing folks everyone began to press against the outskirts of the street. With little warning, the assemblage of folks in costume we had seen at the castle came marching past and continued for quite some time. There were even (very skittish) horses in the procession.
After the commotion died down again we proceeded on to the Grassalkovich Palace, Grasalkovičov palác, residence of the President.
It wasn't too far north of the Old Town, and interestingly a lot of the architecture in the area was much closer to that of Baroque buildings in Vienna (and not at all derelict). We circled behind the palace to the garden there which was rather charming in its simplicity, though Andrew and I questioned a statue trio.
At this point it was about time to amble back to the boat, though we took a slightly roundabout route to pass by the Slovak National Theater (also packed with people seemingly awaiting some procession),
and, caticorner to that, the Reduta, the symphony hall.
Then back to the boat for our journey back to Vienna. And, for what it's worth, I was correct in my assertion that the river route was scenic. I wish I knew what this castle on the hill is:
In summation: Bratislava was definitely worth the trip and the juxtaposition of what has been renovated and preserved with what's been allowed to fall into disrepair is really quite fascinating. Not to mention there was a plethora of neat ironwork, woodwork, and attractive gargoyles.
