The coronation route
Brass crowns set in the old town's pavement.
Helix84 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Uoaei1 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Андрей Бобровский — CC BY 3.0 · Bybbisch94, Christian Gebhardt — CC BY-SA 4.0
The coronation church of Hungary's kings for three centuries: the Gothic cathedral of St Martin (consecrated 1452) stands at the old town's edge below the castle — and in it eleven kings and eight queens were crowned between 1563 and 1830, when Bratislava was the kingdom's capital after Buda fell to the Ottomans. At the top of its eighty-five-metre tower stands not a cross but a gilded replica of the Hungarian royal crown weighing three hundred kilograms — an unmistakable marker of what the city once was. And in the old town's pavement small brass crowns trace the coronation route the new king rode from here to the castle. Inside is tall Gothic with a Baroque altar and a sculpture of St Martin cutting his cloak for a beggar, with burials in the crypt. Directly behind it runs the motorway the communist government drove through in the 1970s, demolishing the old Jewish quarter and nearly destabilising the cathedral's foundations — a wound the city still remembers.
Brass crowns set in the old town's pavement.
Cutting his cloak for a beggar by the altar.
Rudnayovo námestie 1, Bratislava
Hviezdoslav SquareThe elegant promenade between the old town and the river: Hviezdoslav Square is 2 minutes walk4.5
Roland's FountainThe oldest fountain in Bratislava, standing at the centre of the Main Square sin4 minutes walk4.7
The Main SquareThe heart of the old town since the thirteenth century, and smaller than visitor4 minutes walk4.8
Bratislava CastleThe "upturned table" above the Danube: Bratislava Castle is a white rectangle wi4 minutes walk4.4
Museum of History — Slovak National MuseumThe principal museum inside the white rectangular **Bratislava Castle** overlook4 minutes walk4.0The communist government drove the Nový Most bridge and its road through the historic Jewish quarter of Podhradie in the 1970s, demolishing it and its synagogue — a decision still argued about, and the vibration genuinely damaged the cathedral.