Amazing Sights To See in Bratislava

Bratislava is on a hill overlooking the city and was once a Roman frontier post. Since the 19th century there has been a castle at this site but in 1881 it was reduced to rubble due to a fire. It was finally re-built in the mid 1900s and well worth visiting to see the museums inside and to look at the panoramic views over the city. Interesting to see are the rooms of the National Museum and the History Museum.

A large section was devoted to art – about 3500 prints, statues and paintings by both domestic and foreign artists are grouped according to themes. There is religious art, portraits of royalty, more portraits and modern art and sculpture. Other rooms are contain Slovakian glassware, carved wooden furniture, weaponry, helmets, armour and clocks. The Crown Tower is a small enclosed tower that offers a panoramic view of the city, comparable to the view from the Eiffel tower if you were in a city tour from a Paris river cruise.

The Primatial Palace, built in 1778 and located in the centre of the Old Town, is considered to be one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. The exterior is pale pink and white and is topped with various marble statues and a large cast iron cardinal’s hat. The palace itself is filled with large oil paintings of Hapsburg royalty, sparkling crystal chandeliers and six English tapestries on the walls. Another attraction is the ornate Hall of Mirrors. It was here that Napoleon and Francis I signed the Treaty of Pressburg in 1805.

Spend some time at St Michael’s Gate and St Michael’s Street. It is a very quaint street which is full of shops and restaurants and it is very relaxing to just sit and people watch while enjoying a coffee or cold drink. At the top of the street is St Michael’s Gate. This is the only preserved gate of the fortifications of the medieval city. Nowadays, the Museum of Weapons and City Fortifications is located within the tower. Don’t miss the Man at Work. It is a bronze statue of a sewer worker resting at the top of a manhole and he appears to be looking at passerby.

The Jewish community of Bratislava was the largest and most influential in Slovakia. In the early 1920s there were approximately 11,000 Jews in the city and in 1930, about 15,000. In the 1938 elections, Kraus of the Jewish National Party was elected Deputy Mayor of Bratislava and three Jews were elected to the Bratislava city council. Part of the community emigrated during the late 1930s and after the second world war, but the majority perished in the Holocaust. In Bratislava today, there is the Heydukova Street Synagogue, the Chatam Sofer Memorial, the Museum of Jewish Culture, the Bratislava Jewish Community Museum and two cemeteries, the Neolog and the Orthodox. There are also many other Jewish monuments and landmarks.

After your visit to Bratislava in a kosher travel, relax by returning to your Kosher Riverboat Cruises boat to enjoy freshly cooked, glatt kosher meals prepared by our team of on-board chefs, for your delight.