Bratislava - Part 5 - The Castle

A couple of days ago I showed with you the road to the castle. Today I'd like to show you the Bratislava Castle itself.

Today I'd like to show you the castle itself.

Sitting in the top of the hill, I believe the castle is visible from everywhere. However I've only seen it from the UFO Bridge.

The Sigismund gate and part of the wall surrounding the castle.

As I said before, the castle went through a massive "restoration", the walls look like new.

That spherical construction up on the hill was very interesting but unfortunately we could not figure out what it was, so it remains a mystery.

Here it's clearly visible which is the old part of the wall and what is new.

Inside the walls you can see construction materials waiting to be used.

This wall is impressive and it's not just only a wall, there are rooms there, inside the wall. Can't figure out what it is but judging from the iron doors, must have boon some kind of storage space.

This is one of the entrances (or exits, depending on where you are coming from) photographed from inside.

You can take the stairs to get to the castle, but there's another way that goes round and you can see the rest of the inside.

This is an interesting building, as the other side of it is the wall.

There are indicators both in Slovakian and English.

I'm not sure if this is the original form of the stairs but I love it. At the top there's a gate that leads to the castle. Security was important.

This is another way to the top, these stairs can take you to the castle.

Here things started to get interesting. This is a bench with a roof and behind the bench there's a door in the wall, must be an underground cellar or a secret passageway into the castle.

A modern playground for children, which is a good idea as they get bored easily.

A restaurant if you want to serve lunch, we didn't, so i only have the outside of the restaurant. I bet the prices are sky high as generally in places like this. Not that in the old historical city were cheaper.

The history museum inside the castle's walls. I believe it was closed but I'm not sure.

The back side of the castle.

Please have a look at the building and tell me if you see something strange or interesting. I'm going to reveal the strange or interesting thing a bit later.

We're just about to enter the baroque garden.

It's a wonderful garden and it shows that it's newly renovated but it's too white for my taste and that much white doesn't go with the medieval past of the castle. I bet the place has never been so white.

Now I'm asking you again to look carefully at the photo to see if you find something interesting or strange. I do.

There were some ruins they thought worth keeping.

The gate at the top of the stairs I've showed you earlier in my post.

The main entrance of the castle.

Now look at this photo and tell me if you see anything that stand out.

Maybe these windows?

Statue of Svatopluk.

The front door of the castle, I was wondering how old it could be as it looks good.

The interior court of the castle, there were preparation for some kind of concert.

These buildings were next to the castle, most likely for servant's use.

The exit, or the entrance, again, it depends where are you coming from.

This was once the guards place.

Bratislava's Castle - in Slovakian only. No problem, tourists can Google translate that, right?

Although I love castles and medieval buildings in general and this was renovated recently, I was very disappointed after what I've seen. I said it was renovated but the truth is it was more like rebuilt. Although the castle was under Hungarian domination for a long period, there's not a single word in Hungarian anywhere or a statue or something to indicate that.

In some countries, if they don't like the past, they rebuilding it. Out with the old, in with the new, destroy the old and build yourself a new one. I've seen it so many times.