We arrived in Vienna on Thursday and decided that Friday would be a good day for a day trip to Slovakia. Vienna is only an hour train ride from Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, so we decided to hop on the train and head across the Danube to see another country. The train ride was super easy and quick and by 10:30AM we were in Bratislava. We had about seven hours to explore before we needed to be back on the train at 5:30PM so we found the tram that went to the old town and started our sightseeing at the tourist office.
Our first site was the Primate’s Palace. This has nothing to do with monkeys! It’s the site of the signing of the Peace of Pressburg, which effectively dissolved the Holy Roman Empire in 1805. Today it is the seat of the mayor of Bratislava. Inside the Palace in the courtyard is a statue of St. George slaying a three headed dragon.
We stopped into the Franciscan Church and Monestary because it is the oldest religious building still standing in Bratislava. It was build in the 13th Century and is still impressive. The most interesting site in the church was the relic of St. Reparat. This saint died a martyr in 353 in Rome but in the late 1700s his body was sent to Bratislava. He is the saint of people wishing to change their life for the better. The girls thought it was very cool to see the body of a saint.
We continued on to St. Michael’s Gate. This is only remaining gate preserved from the fortifications of the medieval city. Bratislava was at one time completely surrounded by fortress walls and had only four entrance gates. The walls still stand in some places around the city and it is possible to climb to the top of the tower. CJ, Jen and Talia made the trek up to the top and enjoyed looking down to see Adam, Tea and me on the ground.
We stopped for some lunch on our way to Bratislava castle. The castle had fallen into disrepair over many years but has recently been restored to some of its former glory. The castle is high on a hill and offers a beautiful vista across the Danube. Currently the castle is more of a history museum than a model of what the castle may have looked like but we enjoyed walking around. There was an extremely well curated exhibit on the history of the formation of Czechoslovakia and the subsequent dissolution into two independent republics. I wish I had more time to read all the info but it was very cool to look at all the artifacts. We were also able to climb to the top of the Crown Tower to look out over the castle, Bratislava and the Danube. We then climbed down from the town and into a lower level where we could see a replica of the Crown Jewels.
We wound our way down from the top of the hill, with a stop at a playground of course, and made it back into the old town. It was cool to see the walls that once surrounded the city for protection. We re-entered the old city and had a few more sites to see. We wanted to visit St. Martin’s Cathedral since it was the site of the coronation of the King of Hungary from the 1500s to the 1800s. The Cathedral has some beautiful stained glass windows behind the altar and has been restored recently. The church was build on top of an old cemetery and there is a piece of floor covered in glass with a hole about 15 feet deep where you can see the skeletons of people buried there in the 11th Century. Again the girls thought this was really cool.
We felt that we had hit the major sites by about 3:30 and had a little bit of time to kill before hopping back on our train to Vienna. We stopped for some ice cream and small souvenirs on our way towards the train station. We also found the statue of Cumil, a sewer worker who may be either a peeping Tom, or just a worker taking a break. The statue is quite well known so we were able to stop for a quick pic.
By 5:15 we were at the train station and ready to go. We had a safe and easy journey home and were back in our apartment by 7:00. It was a great day and we were happy to see another European capital city.