A stroll along a river

Our actual trip to Devin Castle was not the trip we had originally planned. We had planned to hire bikes and ride the iron Curtain Trail (ICT) also known as the EuroVelo 13 (EV13) from Bratislava Old Town. Unfortunately due to a misunderstanding on my part - thinking we had to arrive at the bike rental after 10am but actually it was before 10am, we missed out on our bikes. No problem we could catch Bus 29 which would take us on a 20 minute journey directly to the foot of the castle. On arrival we were met with two paths - one which would take us up to the castle - the other to the river.

We had brought our lunch with us and decided to take the walk to the river to relax and have lunch prior to entering the castle grounds. The path led us down to the banks of the Morava River a tributary of the Danube. The lower part of the river's course forms the border between Austria and Slovakia.

To our surprise at the confluence of the Morava and Danube rivers, sitting below Devin Castle we find the Gate of Freedom memorial. During the Cold War, this corner of land lay behind the Iron Curtain, and was part of Communist Czechoslovakia

Between 1945 and 1989, more than 400 people lost their lives trying to escape from Czechoslovakia to the west; most were shot. Their names are inscribed on the large white stone representation of a gate, peppered with artificial bullet holes. And at the foot of the memorial lies a stone plaque.

In addition to the memorial gate, close by there is a second memorial, a rusted iron sculpture inscribed with the prophetic words of Winston Churchill. FROM STETTIN IN THE BALTIC to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” Winston Churchill, March 1946. This sculpture was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II on 23 October 2008.

And as we walk along the river there are more reminders of the Cold War and iron curtain, a statue of a huge metal heart, was created using rusty barbed wire salvaged from the Iron Curtain.

Further along we came to a nondescript-looking building that the website https://www.dark-tourism.com/index.php/slovakia/15-countries/individual-chapters/1124-devin notes was originally built by Nazi Germany and whose roof was later used during the communist era for staging propagandistic events.

Our walk continues to Devin Castle - but our discovery along the river reminds us of the more recent history of this area.