Instead of staying a couple of nights in Bratislava, we decided to just do it as a day trip from Vienna. It’s only about an hour away by train and was definitely do-able as a day trip. Once we got off the train we hopped on a bus to get to the main square area. Our train ticket was only 19 Euro a piece round trip and it included transit for the day in Bratislava – not a bad deal! We only used the transit within Bratislava to get to and from the train station (we walked everywhere else) – you could also walk from the train station but it would have added a decent amount of time (25 min each way) and we wanted to make the most of our time in Bratislava.
The bus stop for the main square is a short walk outside of the main square and was right by the Presidential Palace.
As we walked from there into the main square, we got our first glimpse of Bratislava castle up on the hill (as you can see it was a rather overcast day!)
From there we walked through Michael’s Gate into the Hlavné námestie (Main Square).
A popular sight (or really sights) in Bratislava are the bronze statues all over the old town. Čumil is probably one of the most well known but we also found the Napoleonic army soldier and a few others (https://www.welcometobratislava.eu/bratislava-statues/). Many of these were only created in the late 1990s (1997). And while Bratislava has history dating back to its days as a Celtic trading hub in 200 BC, its current status is pretty new. It was the capital of the Slovak Socialist Republic within Czechoslovakia but became the capital of an independent Slovakia in 1993 when Czechoslovakia was split up in the “Velvet Divorce”.
From here we walked over to St. Martin’s Cathedral – we weren’t able to go inside because they were closed mid-day but it was an impressive place to see outside.
Very near there was the Most SNP (most = bridge; the SNP part is for the “Slovenské národné povstanie” – the Slovak National Uprising) – it’s also referred to as the “UFO Bridge” and I think you can see why. There is a restaurant in the top of it and you can pay 10 Euro just to go up for scenic views but with the very overcast day we had, it was not worth paying for a view (even with a clear day, you can get great views from the castle too).
Unfortunately in the process of building this bridge, they tore down a synagogue. The bridge was opened on 26 August 1972 – the 28th anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising. They had tried on 2 prior occasions (in April and October 1968) to have the Ministry of Culture cancel the protection of historic buildings (including the Neolog Synagogue) that were in the construction route and the request was denied. So the investor of the bridge bought the synagogue and then requested demolition – for which permission was granted in January 1969. While a new bridge was needed, it did not need to be in this exact location. They tore down the synagogue and a good portion of the Jewish quarter in the process. There is a sculpture right near St. Martin’s Cathedral memorializing the demolished synagogue and surrounding area as well as some informative plaques about the destruction (incidentally they also unearthed some of the old city wall in the bridge-building process).
After we left the area of St. Martin’s Cathedral and the previous synagogue, we walked along the Danube for a bit to get to our next stop. It was pretty cold while we were there – and we saw chunks of ice floating in the river and snow piled on some of the ships. From there we also had another good view of the castle up on the hill.
We walked down to the Church of St. Elizabeth (more commonly known as the Blue Church). Pretty new by European standards – it was built between 1910 and 1913. It was a pretty cool church to see though!
We made our way back toward the Main Square and on the way passed the Slovak National Theater.
Our last stop was the Bratislava Castle. We climbed up the hill – these things are always on top of huge hills! Makes sense given their role in protecting a city but not always the most fun to get to (I guess it was at least a good workout!).
As you saw from these pictures, it was a bit of a cold and icy day. But one of the craziest things to see (and hear) was all of the ice sheets crashing from the roofs of buildings! Thankfully none of them seemed to hit anyone but they definitely came without warning! At our next stop in Graz we did see warning signs for “roof avalanches” but Bratislava didn’t have any similar warnings (the signs in Graz definitely made it seem like this was a relatively common occurrence though!).
We definitely enjoyed the day trip from Vienna. It would be a neat place to stay a couple nights as well but it was nice to stay in one place and not be constantly packing up our luggage.
