Another country's capital, an hour down the Danube, and the closest pair of capital cities in the world.
Vienna and Bratislava are about 55 kilometres apart, the closest two national capitals in the world other than Rome and the Vatican. For most of the twentieth century that proximity was irrelevant, because the Iron Curtain ran between them and the border was mined. Since 2007 both have been in Schengen and the train takes an hour.
The old town
Compact, pedestrianised, and walkable in half a day. Michael’s Gate is the last of the medieval gates. St Martin’s Cathedral crowned eleven Hungarian kings and eight queens between 1563 and 1830, when Bratislava — then Pressburg, or Pozsony — was the capital of Habsburg Hungary because Buda was under Ottoman rule.
The Primate’s Palace holds a set of six English tapestries found hidden behind panelling in 1903, and the hall where the Peace of Pressburg was signed after Austerlitz in 1805.
The bronze figures around the old town — Čumil, a workman leaning out of a manhole; the Napoleonic soldier on a bench — are 1990s additions and are photographed relentlessly.
The castle
A white rectangular block with four corner towers on the hill above the river, burned out in 1811 and left a ruin for 140 years before reconstruction. The interiors are a modern museum; the value is the terrace, which looks over the Danube, the old town, the Petržalka housing estates opposite and, on a clear day, into both Austria and Hungary.
The other Bratislava
Petržalka, across the river, is one of the largest panel-block housing estates in Central Europe, built in the 1970s for 100,000 people. It is not a tourist attraction and it is a large part of what the city actually is, and it is visible from everywhere.
The UFO observation deck on the SNP Bridge — a 1970s pylon with a restaurant on top — is the best view of both halves.
Getting there
Train from Wien Hauptbahnhof to Bratislava hlavná stanica, roughly hourly, about an hour. The EURegio ticket covers the return journey plus local transport in Bratislava for one price and is the sensible option.
Boat — Twin City Liner runs a fast catamaran along the Danube from Schwedenplatz in about seventy-five minutes, April to October. More expensive, much more pleasant.
Bus is cheapest and slowest.
Practical
Slovakia is in the eurozone and in Schengen, so no money to change and no border check — but carry your passport or ID card anyway, because spot checks happen.
Slovak is a different language from German and from Hungarian. English is widely spoken in the centre.
