Bratislava

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Introducing Bratislava

If you focus on the compact historic centre, you’ll see cobblestoned roads, pedestrian plazas, pastel 18th-century rococo buildings and street cafés galore. Expand your gaze and you can’t miss the institutional housing blocks and bizarre communist construction beyond. An age-old castle shares the skyline with a 1970s UFO-like bridge. And that’s Bratislava: a mix of new, old and older. All of which is worth a look.

As post-EU-membership investment pours in, the whir of construction equipment in all quarters signals that Slovakia’s capital is growing. The city has a buzz to it: beautiful people wearing black flock to the newest chichi eatery as soon as it opens. Weekend nights it’d be odd if you didn’t see a gang or two of non-Slovak-speaking blokes wandering around the streets of the old town. There’s something a bit reckless about the development, though. Zoning laws are largely ignored, and an odd mix of antireform-minded parties took control of the parliament in June 2006.

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Overhead of Bratislava rooftops seen from Castle.
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Overhead of Bratislava rooftops seen from Castle.

Lonely Planet photographer
  • Richard Nebesky
  • Lonely Planet photographer
  • Bratislava Castle.
  • The Photographer, life-size bronze statue, Laurinska Street.
  • Sculpture in Bratislava's old town.
  • Stara Radnica (Old Town Hall) at Hlavne Namastie.
  • Danube with Barge below Devin Castle, near Bratislava.
  • Slavin War Memorial remembers 6,300 Soviet Soldiers.
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