Hrad Devin

It is surely only a matter of time before Bratislava (and associated Slovakia) is heralded on tv life-style travel shows as a ‘hitherto undiscovered gem of Danubian middle Europe, stealthily sidling up against and even straddling the mighty watercourse without ever disjointing the noses of its more illustrious and well-known neighbours’.

But for now, Bratislava is a delight, quietly going about its own business – some might see a low-key Prague, but situated on the Danube almost midway between Vienna and Budapest, respectively upstream and down. And its location bang on the erstwhile Iron Curtain between east and west adds a fascinating, absorbing and in truth terrifying overlay to the already rich fabric of European history.

And so it was that we ended up on bus #29 heading east out of the capital city toward the ruin of Hrad Devin (Devin Castle), which sits atop a hill (which has its own spellbinding geological history) at the confluence of the Danube and the Morava Rivers.  

Somewhat eerily, the road along the Danube was until 1989 fortified with an ugly wire fence, ostensibly to keep invaders out, but actually to keep people from fleeing the soviet occupation. Nowadays, Hrad Devin’s strategic significance as a medieval defence is quite obvious. But it is a ruin, thanks it seems to Napoleon Bonaparte, or troops reporting to him in any case, who reportedly burned the pace down in 1809.

But ruin or otherwise, it’s well worth a visit.

And a fun thing to do, is to fill a cup of water and chuck it into the well and then wait the 4-5 seconds to hear the splash come up from the bottom. Frighteningly good fun.