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Wall - Bratislava Castle, Slovakia

Posted by Michael Skorulski (Cigel, Slovakia) on 9 April 2008 in Architecture and Portfolio.

The castle hill, overlooking the Danube River, has been occupied since 600 B.C., first by people of the Baden culture then by Celtic tribes. A Roman settlement on the Castle mount dates to the end of 1st century A. D. Then the territory fell under the rule of Germanic tribes that came to battle the Roman Empire.

The name of the castle is recorded on coins, issued by the first Hungarian king Stephan I (1000-1038). The Tartars devastated the country from 1241 and 1242, but were not able to capture the castle.

Reconstruction was started in 1552 after the Hungarian state administration was moved from Buda to Bratislava and the town was declared the official coronation town for Hungarian Kings by the parliament. The old Gothic building was soon changed into a fortified Renaissance castle. The south-west tower also known as the jewel tower, housed the Hungarian coronation jewels for two centuries.

The last large scale reconstruction in Baroque style took place under the reign of Maria Theresa (1740-1780). In 1783 the Emperor Joseph II established the General Seminary for the education of Roman Catholic priests in the castle.

After the death of Joseph II the seminary was almost immediately dissolved and the castle remained virtually empty, until it was turned into a military garrison in 1802.

In 1953, reconstruction after a fire began and was finished in the 1960s. The premises were adapted to house exhibits of the Slovak National Museum and government offices.
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