TOP 21 best attractions in Bratislava

In the cap­i­tal of Slo­va­kia, there are many inter­est­ing archi­tec­tur­al struc­tures, cas­tles, church­es, ancient cities and muse­ums that have col­lect­ed the best cre­ations of artists and sculp­tors.

Who and why should come to Bratislava

This city will appeal to all con­nois­seurs of beau­ty. There are many art gal­leries that have col­lect­ed works of art from dif­fer­ent eras, a bien­nale for young artists is reg­u­lar­ly held, as well as inter­na­tion­al sym­po­siums and the­mat­ic work­shops from famous illus­tra­tors. The Phil­har­mon­ic and the the­ater invite you to enjoy clas­si­cal music, orig­i­nal per­for­mances and the mas­ter­piece dec­o­ra­tion of the build­ings.

His­to­ri­ans will be inter­est­ed in vis­it­ing numer­ous muse­ums, medieval cas­tles, fortress ruins and the old town. Build­ings of the XIII-XVIII cen­turies cause delight and con­fu­sion at the same time. Local archi­tec­ture is made in the style of Goth­ic, Baroque and Neo-Renais­sance. Also in the cap­i­tal there are out­stand­ing mon­u­ments and memo­ri­als ded­i­cat­ed to the dif­fi­cult peri­od of World War II.

Nature lovers can relax in Bratislava’s spa­cious parks, admire the local scenery or vis­it the local zoo with endan­gered species and amuse­ment rides. Young peo­ple and fam­i­lies with chil­dren should def­i­nite­ly pay a vis­it there or go to Koli­ba Park.

Cultural attractions and museums

old town hall

Ini­tial­ly, the build­ing of the 13th cen­tu­ry was made in the Goth­ic style, but the recon­struc­tion after the earth­quake and fire made its own changes to its archi­tec­ture. As a result, Baroque and Renais­sance ele­ments appeared on the town hall.

Over time, the build­ing was sup­ple­ment­ed with an exten­sion in the Neo-Goth­ic and Neo-Renais­sance styles. Today the town hall con­sists of four hous­es and is a muse­um. The main exhibits are: armor of knights, medieval weapons, instru­ments of tor­ture, paint­ings and even a can­non­ball, pre­served from the time of Napoleon’s offen­sive in 1809.

Nedbalka Gallery

You don’t need to look for the gallery for a long time — it is locat­ed not far from the town hall in the Old Town. In sum­mer, tourists are greet­ed by an umbrel­la instal­la­tion at the entrance. The build­ing has a cafe­te­ria for relax­ation. Each vis­i­tor is pro­vid­ed with a “guide” — a tablet con­tain­ing all the nec­es­sary infor­ma­tion about the exhibits.

To get acquaint­ed with the pic­ture, you just need to take a pic­ture and a descrip­tion in the select­ed lan­guage will be dis­played on the screen. On three floors of the gallery, paint­ings by local artists and works from dif­fer­ent eras are pre­sent­ed. Tem­po­rary exhi­bi­tions are held on the ground floor.

Slovak National Theater

The old­est pro­fes­sion­al the­ater in all of Slo­va­kia. The con­struc­tion of its “his­tor­i­cal” part began in 1884, and in 2007 the mod­ern part was built near the banks of the Danube. The facade of the old build­ing is dec­o­rat­ed with fres­coes and antique stat­ues, and at the entrance, sur­round­ed by col­or­ful flow­ers, the Ganymede foun­tain oper­ates.

The new build­ing con­tains 7 floors, on which there are more than 2000 halls — three of them are the main ones. There is also a restau­rant for 1200 peo­ple, a cafe­te­ria and a club. The high­light of the lob­by is the spring, designed by the archi­tect Pavol Bauer.

The front side of the build­ing is com­plete­ly mir­rored, and the entrance is dec­o­rat­ed with a foun­tain of unusu­al design. All halls of the Nation­al The­ater can accom­mo­date up to 1700 peo­ple. Not only per­for­mances are staged here, but also bal­let. Free park­ing is allowed for vis­i­tors.

City Philharmonic

No less beau­ti­ful con­quers the build­ing of the Phil­har­mon­ic in the Baroque style. It is locat­ed in the heart of the his­tor­i­cal cen­ter — in the old town on Hviez­doslav Square, sur­round­ed by alleys, restau­rants and res­i­den­tial man­sions. Here you can enjoy organ music and works of the sym­pho­ny orches­tra.

All per­for­mances are accom­pa­nied by sub­ti­tles in two lan­guages: Ger­man and Eng­lish. Near the build­ing there is a mon­u­ment to G.Kh. Ander­sen.

Gallery Multium

Not the most pop­u­lar object among tourists, but worth a vis­it. The build­ing has 6 rooms recre­at­ing the illu­sion of infin­i­ty using a 3D pro­jec­tor. It can be a bot­tom­less well, a tun­nel, a star­ry sky, a sphere, etc. You can go around the whole room in 30–40 min­utes. Mir­rors are locat­ed at dif­fer­ent angles and cre­ate unusu­al effects.

Museum of Contemporary Art Danubiana

The attrac­tion is locat­ed 23 km from the cen­ter of Bratisla­va — on the Danube penin­su­la. The muse­um was opened in 2000 and attracts the atten­tion of tourists with unusu­al exhibits locat­ed on the adja­cent ter­ri­to­ry.

Here are paint­ings and stat­ues of con­tem­po­rary authors, every 2 years fes­ti­vals of inno­va­tors and young mas­ters are held. The exhi­bi­tion area of ​​the muse­um is 2726 square meters. m., and on its roof there is a real sculp­ture park.

Uluv gallery and shop

The Folk Art Cen­ter was orga­nized specif­i­cal­ly to intro­duce tourists to the tra­di­tion­al crafts of Slo­va­kia. Here you can see the works of local artists, glass­ware and ceram­ics, hand­made lace, sculp­tures made of wire and clay, as well as carved wood­en sou­venirs that you can not only admire, but also buy for your­self and your friends.

Architectural and historical sights

Mikhailovsky gate

Anoth­er build­ing of the 13th cen­tu­ry is the Mikhailovsky Gate and the tow­er. The only check­point in the city that has sur­vived from those times. Accord­ing to leg­end, when pass­ing under the gate, you need to keep silence, and then luck will come in any sit­u­a­tion.

At the top of the com­plex is a stat­ue of St. Michael and a drag­on. A part of a tomb­stone made of pink stone is built into the tow­er, rem­i­nis­cent of the church that once exist­ed here, which was destroyed dur­ing the offen­sive of the Turk­ish troops. The room hous­es a small muse­um of ancient weapons and an obser­va­tion deck, from the win­dows of which you can see the old city.

An unusu­al addi­tion to the Mikhailovskaya arch is the “zero kilo­me­ter”, indi­cat­ing the dis­tance to the major cities of the plan­et.

Devin Castle

The build­ing has a long his­to­ry and a tur­bu­lent mil­i­tary past. The fortress was attacked by the Franks, Ottomans, Napoleon, passed from hand to hand and was a tasty morsel for Aus­tria and Hun­gary. By the begin­ning of the 19th cen­tu­ry, it was almost com­plete­ly destroyed, but the ruins of the cas­tle still attract the atten­tion of tourists.

Today the fortress con­sists of a gate, the Maid­en’s Tow­er and the remains of the walls. How­ev­er, here you can admire not only the ancient ruins, but also the con­flu­ence of two rivers — the Danube and the Mora­va, as well as the end­less beau­ties of Bratisla­va. Tourists get to the cas­tle by bus or tram.

Grassalkovich Palace

The res­i­dence of the Pres­i­dent of Slo­va­kia is strik­ing in its gigan­tic size. The palace com­plex was built in 1760 in the Baroque style and includes a park area, alleys with carved bench­es, sculp­tures, unusu­al foun­tains and a play­ground. In the park there is a mon­u­ment to Empress Maria There­sa and the famous com­pos­er Johann Hum­mel.

In front of the entrance to the res­i­dence, the orig­i­nal foun­tain “Earth — the plan­et of the world” is bro­ken. It is a gran­ite ball with a diam­e­ter of 3 meters, on the smooth sur­face of which fly­ing doves are carved, sym­bol­iz­ing peace. The sphere itself is locat­ed in the cen­ter of the “bowl” with water and is washed by sprays from 230 noz­zles. Palace Square is often used for polit­i­cal actions.

Primate’s Palace

The build­ing of the XIV cen­tu­ry — the Arch­bish­op’s Palace. It is locat­ed on Primus Square, almost in the cen­ter of the city and is made in neo­clas­si­cal style. On its ped­i­ment is the coat of arms of the arch­bish­op and the car­di­nal’s hat.

The Palace Muse­um keeps many ancient arti­facts, tapes­tries, por­traits and oth­er cul­tur­al val­ues. Of par­tic­u­lar inter­est is the mir­ror hall, where peace agree­ments with Napoleon were once signed and impor­tant polit­i­cal issues were resolved. Today the build­ing serves as the res­i­dence of the may­or of Bratisla­va.

religious buildings

Church of St. Elizabeth

The Blue Church, beloved by all tourists, is made in the Art Nou­veau style and dates back to 1909. Its façade is paint­ed blue; above the entrance there is a mosa­ic with the face of St. Eliz­a­beth. Accord­ing to leg­end, she gave alms to the needy, but her rich hus­band for­bade her to do so. The spire of the build­ing is impres­sive, its height is 37 meters. The church is always open for vis­its. Before enter­ing the build­ing, you can see a mon­u­ment to unborn chil­dren.

Cathedral of Saint Martin

This tem­ple is a typ­i­cal exam­ple of the Goth­ic style of archi­tec­ture. Its tow­er, 85 meters high, is dec­o­rat­ed with a 300-kilo­gram crown in mem­o­ry of the coro­na­tions of Roman rulers. Near the cathe­dral there are sev­er­al chapels and a group of stat­ues that tell about the events involv­ing St. Mar­tin.

Inside you can see the sculp­ture of the saint, paint­ings, medieval tomb­stones and beau­ti­ful col­ored stained glass win­dows. The bod­ies of promi­nent rulers of the coun­try, nobles and cler­gy are buried in the cat­a­combs of the church.

Church of St. Stephen

On the way to the Old Town, you should vis­it Zup­naya Square, the attrac­tion of which is the Church of the Capuchins. Next to the church is a sculp­ture of the Madon­na with a sad smile. The tem­ple itself is rather mod­est­ly dec­o­rat­ed, paint­ed in a warm sandy col­or and has no bell tow­er.

In the niche, at the entrance, there is a fig­ure of the patron saint of the church — St. Stephen. But under the tem­ple there are long cat­a­combs with bur­ial places of impor­tant peo­ple. Alas, some tun­nels crum­bled over time and can­not be restored.

Church of the Franciscans

Anoth­er old Catholic church, built in 1297 by the Hun­gar­i­an king. Its orig­i­nal appear­ance was Goth­ic, but the tem­ple sur­vived rebuild­ing in the Renais­sance and Baroque styles. Inside you will see stained glass win­dows, an ancient crypt, as well as stat­ues of saints: Stephen, Emer­ic, Fran­cis of Assisi, Antho­ny of Pad­ua.

The church also hous­es the relics of St. Repara­ta. A two-tiered chapel of St. John the The­olo­gian was erect­ed next to the build­ing.

Memorable places

Memorial complex Slavin

On the 15th anniver­sary of the lib­er­a­tion of the city from the Ger­man invaders, a memo­r­i­al was erect­ed at the mass grave of the dead sol­diers, where almost 7 thou­sand heroes found peace. In 1961 the com­plex was declared a nation­al cul­tur­al mon­u­ment.

The height of the obelisk is 42 meters, on its top you can see the fig­ure of a sol­dier at 12.5 meters. The dates of the lib­er­a­tion of the cities of Slo­va­kia are engraved on the walls of the adjoin­ing hall.

Monument plumber Chumil

Anoth­er mon­u­ment reminds us of the dif­fi­cult wartime — plumb­ing Chu­mil. In appear­ance, this is just a good-natured man, look­ing out from the well, sym­bol­iz­ing the work of plumbers. But in fact, sculp­ture has a dif­fer­ent mean­ing. Dur­ing the bomb­ing peri­od, peo­ple who lived in the cen­ter hid in the sew­ers to escape death.

Interesting places

Main Market Square

In the heart of the Old Town, the his­tor­i­cal admin­is­tra­tive cen­ter of Bratisla­va, there is the main square, for­mer­ly called the “mar­ket square”. It com­bines build­ings and struc­tures of dif­fer­ent styles, as well as cozy cafes, expen­sive restau­rants, shops and foun­tains.

On the eve of Christ­mas and East­er, fairs are held here, hand­made sou­venirs, food and sweets are sold. In the cen­ter of the square there is a foun­tain with a stat­ue of the knight-defend­er of the city. Accord­ing to leg­end, he descends from his pedestal under the chimes and on the night of Good Fri­day, bypass­ing the ter­ri­to­ry with a sword in his hands.

Koliba park

The Koli­ba park area is locat­ed in the microdis­trict of Bratisla­va at the foot of the Less­er Carpathi­ans. On its ter­ri­to­ry there is a famous film stu­dio and a TV tow­er, many paths for tourists and cyclists, as well as a cable car.

Here you can enjoy the fresh air, be alone with nature, have a pic­nic with your fam­i­ly. For vis­i­tors there are small shops with drinks and snacks.

Bridge SNP or UFO

The largest bridge in Bratisla­va is con­sid­ered to be an over­pass that does not have a sin­gle sup­port in the bed of the Danube Riv­er. It hangs at a height of 85 m above the water lev­el. Its length is 431 m, width — 21 m. In the mid­dle of the struc­ture is a dome in the form of a UFO saucer, 85 m high.

At the top of the “uniden­ti­fied object” there is a restau­rant where you can not only have a roman­tic date, but also admire the beau­ties of the city from the obser­va­tion deck. The scenery is espe­cial­ly beau­ti­ful at sun­set.

national zoo

At the foot of the Less­er Carpathi­ans in the Mlyn­s­ka Val­ley, there was also a place for a zoo. About 700 rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the ani­mal world live here: 21 species of rep­tiles, 38 species of birds and about 80 mam­mals. Endan­gered island lynx­es, the first pets of the reserve, have become the sym­bol of the zoo.

In the vast­ness of the park, you can meet chim­panzees, kulans, Prze­wal­ski’s hors­es, white rhi­noc­er­os, white Ben­gal tiger and oth­er endan­gered ani­mals. In 2004, a park appeared on its ter­ri­to­ry with fig­ures of pre­his­toric dinosaurs that can move and make sounds. For the enter­tain­ment of young peo­ple, climb­ing walls, rope trails, attrac­tions and kiosks with fast food are also built here.