Bratislava’s Boom Time
Words Davide Scagliola / TCS Photos TCS
Two cities, close to each other and linked by a great river, reflect a very different history. One is steeped in affluence and opulence, the other by recent Eastern Bloc restraints. Vienna has been a capital of various empires from 1156; it’s where the Congress of Vienna redrew the European map in 1815. Bratislava did not even become a capital city until less than two decades ago.
The Slovakian city is steeped in the medieval and post-war past. Look north from the castle and you’ll see to the ancient historical centre, sloping gently down towards the water like Budapest in miniature, full of churches, a maze of pedestrianised streets, pastel facades, squares, shops and fashionable restaurants. On the south side of the river, the modern apartment buildings from the Soviet era seem to belong to another world.
But appearances can be deceptive and this watery divide is in fact an illusion, now a kind if urban social reunification is taking place. Even on the poorer south bank, new shopping centres, multiplex cinemas and homes for the nouveau riche are springing up, grabbing attention from the overcrowded north.
“The new idea is to stay in both capitals over one holiday,” explains Martina, a City Hall employee. “We are working on a project to link Vienna and Bratislava as if they were both just one great city.” Sipping a cappuccino in one of the voguish cafés on Hlavnè Square, she says: “Thanks to the opening of the airport, the river connection with Vienna and the motorway that joins the two frontiers and eats up the 70km between us, the capitals can live together and exchange tourists, and ideas to boost our popularity.
“In the city today,” she continues, “the Germans and Austrians come for the cheap shopping – and for the longer opening hours, especially at weekends, while Viennese music lovers come for the opera season – in Bratislava it remains quite traditional and conservative. Italians come for the Tour of Slovakia bike race in August, Czechs for tourism and business, and there are a few from all the other European nations. They come to discover what’s new and happening on our stretch of the River Danube. It’s a real boom.
“When I was young there was only a handful of restaurants in city, a few market stalls and a single bar. People stayed at home, because there was nothing to do and nowhere to spend money. We occasionally went shopping with my father in the centre, and walking on Sundays.”
What a contrast with today, as 80 thousand students (from the 10 universities, all of which are free), half a million inhabitants and nearly two million tourists per year, make Bratislava a lively place. It has become a fashion phenomenon, and a cultural trendsetter, no less so than Paris, London or Berlin. If on a Friday evening you pass the Radisson Blu Carlton – the most elegant hotel in the city, on Hviezdoslavova nam in the historical centre, just steps from the river – you’ll glimpse this transformation. Porsche and Mercedes convertibles, and Audi TTs, wait to take the owners to the opera, the museum, or to chic bars and restaurants such as the Paparazzi, the Greenwich Cocktail Bar or Mezzo Mezzo. Evenings here are filled with concerts, theatre and packed nightclubs. Yet it has achieved all this without losing the tranquillity of a capital that remembers when it was a mere provincial town.
When I dine outdoors in the narrow cobbled alleys of the Stary Mesto, the Old Town, I feel as though I’m in Prague or Tallinn. Chic young men and women are everywhere, keen to show off their newly purchased luxury accessories. This central European good life was almost unthinkable just a few decades ago. “You are right to be surprised, my friend,” says Stefan, a blond-haired man in a navy blue jacket and cowboy boots, who is sat in front of a beer at the bar of the Havana Club. “We ourselves have had to become accustomed to the good times in a hurry. In my youth our parents went through years of sacrifice. But now the city has transformed at the speed of light, before my very eyes. Where one day there’s an old shop, the next day a sushi bar will appear. If you visit a shoemakers one week, you’ll find that the next week it’s become a beautiful modern cocktail bar filled with lounge music.”
In short, looking around it now almost seems as though communism was never here…
In fact, communism could be described as a blip in Bratislava’s history. Although it is one of youngest capitals in Europe, its history stretches back at least 2000 years. For at least four centuries the area was a Limes Romanus, a border post at the edge of the Roman Empire, and an important trading centre. Later, around 800 AD, the Slavs established the Kingdom of Moravia, and built the first fortress on the hill dominating the Danube. The Hungarians followed around 1000 AD, and in the late Middle Ages, Sigismund of Luxembourg, Holy Roman Emperor. The castle was built in Gothic style, then restored with Renaissance touches by King Ferdinand I in 17th century. Today it is the Slovakian Republic’s seat of government.
In the coming years however the focus of attention will move to the waterfront, which is being transformed into a lavish business and leisure district. The building work began with two projects stemming from Dubai – in fact the entire city seems keen to emulate the Arab Emirate’s model for tourist development. And Slovakia is receiving €11bn in EU funding up to 2013, to be spent on various regeneration programmes. Meanwhile, private investment will help to create conference centres, exhibition halls, hotels and cultural spaces along the two banks of the Danube, just beside the historical centre. It will mean changing the face of waterside Bratislava, which for the time being still consists of trees, boats and swans. The city is transforming into a new Mecca of shopping, culture and entertainment.
The city centre currently balances medieval central European elegance with the apex of consumerism and design innovation. But the new development may render it a kind of an open-air museum, like Prague’s Old Town, Paris’s Montmartre district, or the upper town in Budapest. More hopefully, perhaps one day the ripples of this new affluence will reach out to other regions in the Slovak Republic. Bratislava has a lot of catching up to do, but let’s hope it doesn’t leave behind its past of narrow cobbled streets and stalls selling corn on the cob beneath ancient arches.
A BRATISLAVA BITE
Mezzo Mezzo Close to the opera, this light and airy restaurant is an elegant treat. Rybárska brána 9, +421 (0)2 5443 4393, www.mezzo.sk
Fish Gate Fish and traditional local cuisine. Rybárska brána 8.
Paparazzi Fashionable and central cocktail bar. Laurinska 1, +421 (0)2 5464 7971, www.paparazzi.sk
Tempus Fugit One of the most stylish venues, in a 15th-century palace. Sedlárska 5, +421 (0)2 5441 4357, www.tempusfugit.sk
Traya Musketieri A dip into medieval gastronomy. Sladkovicova 7, +421 (0)2 5443 0019, www.trajamusketieri.sk
