Bratislava: what to see, where to stay and how to get around

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Bratislava, Pressburg in German and Pozsony in Hungarian, was the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary for two and a half centuries after the Ottomans took Buda, and the Hungarian kings were crowned here. Brass crowns set in the pavement mark the route the new kings walked. Ninety minutes, flat in the old town.

A short history of Bratislava

Celts lived here on the bank of the Danube, and later the frontier of the Roman Empire ran past the site. The city's early name first appears in 907, in an account of a battle between the Bavarians and the Hungarians. When the Ottomans conquered most of Hungary in the 16th century, the city, then called Pressburg or Pozsony, became the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary, and between 1563 and 1830 Hungarian kings and queens were crowned in its St Martin's Cathedral. In the 19th century the Pressburg Yeshiva of the Chatam Sofer, one of the most important yeshivas in Europe, operated in the city. It was named Bratislava only in 1919, and in 1993 it became the capital of independent Slovakia.

The ten best sights in Bratislava

1
Bratislava Castle
The white castle on the hill over the Danube
2
St Martin’s Cathedral
Where the kings of Hungary were crowned
3
Museum of Jewish Culture
On Židovská, the old Jewish street
4
Michael’s Gate
The last city gate, and kilometre zero
5
Hlavné námestie
The main square with its Roland fountain
6
Old Town Hall
A Napoleonic cannonball still in its tower
7
Čumil
The bronze worker peering out of a manhole
8
Primate’s Palace
The Hall of Mirrors of the 1805 peace
9
Hviezdoslavovo námestie
The long promenade square by the opera
10
Blue Church
An Art Nouveau church entirely in blue

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What is an audio walk?

Tours in Bratislava →

A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Bratislava:

Free walking tours in Bratislava

The coronation city

St Martin’s Cathedral · Between 1563 and 1830 eleven kings and eight queens of Hungary were crowned in this Gothic cathedral, among them Maria Theresa in 1741. In place of a cross, its spire carries a gilded copy of the crown of Saint Stephen, weighing about three hundred kilograms.
Museum of Jewish Culture · Židovská, Jewish Street, ran below the castle in the old Jewish quarter, which held one of the great Jewish communities of central Europe. The museum in a Renaissance house tells its story; most of the quarter was torn down in the 1960s for the road to the new bridge.
Michael’s Gate · The only gate left of the medieval walls, with a tall baroque tower topped by a statue of Saint Michael killing the dragon. Under it a brass plaque marks kilometre zero, with the distances to the capitals of the world.
Old Town Hall · The oldest town hall in the country, from the fourteenth century. In its tower wall is lodged a cannonball fired by Napoleon’s army when it bombarded the city in 1809, left there as a reminder.
Primate’s Palace · The palace of the archbishop of Esztergom, the primate of Hungary. In its Hall of Mirrors, in December 1805, the Peace of Pressburg was signed after Napoleon’s victory at Austerlitz. In 1903 workers found six seventeenth-century English tapestries hidden behind its walls.
Čumil · A bronze sewer worker leaning on his elbows out of a manhole, put up in 1997 as a joke to cheer up the old town after communism, with a sign warning Man at Work. He has lost his head to passing cars more than once.

The rabbi, the bridge and the castle

Pressburg was a centre of Orthodox Judaism, home to the yeshiva of the Chatam Sofer, the most influential rabbi of his age. Communist planners drove a motorway and a bridge through the Jewish quarter, but his grave survived, hidden underground. Two hours, with a climb to the castle.

Chatam Sofer Memorial · Rabbi Moses Sofer, the Chatam Sofer, led the community from 1806 until his death in 1839 and fought against reform with the words “the new is forbidden by the Torah”; his yeshiva trained generations of rabbis. During the war most of the old Jewish cemetery was destroyed for a tram tunnel, but the rabbis’ graves were saved in a concrete shell under the road, and in 2002 they were reopened as an underground memorial, visited by pilgrims from Israel and the world.
Bratislava Castle · A square castle with four corner towers on the hill, residence of Maria Theresa when she visited as queen of Hungary. It burned in 1811 and stood as a ruin for a century and a half, until it was rebuilt in the 1950s and 1960s. From its terrace you see Austria and Hungary at once.
UFO · The Bridge of the Slovak National Uprising, opened in 1972, carries on its single pylon a restaurant shaped like a flying saucer, eighty-five metres above the Danube. To build its approach road the communist authorities demolished much of the old town below the castle, including the great synagogue of the Neolog community, in 1969.
Heydukova Synagogue · Built in 1926 for the Orthodox community in a modern style with a row of tall columns, it is the only synagogue left in Bratislava. Of the city’s fifteen thousand Jews before the war, most were deported in 1942 and 1944 and murdered; the small community prays here today.
Blue Church · The church of Saint Elizabeth, finished in 1913 by the Hungarian architect Ödön Lechner, is blue inside and out — blue plaster, blue glazed tiles and a blue roof — like a building made of sugar icing.
Hviezdoslavovo námestie · A long tree-lined square built over the old moat, closed at one end by the neo-baroque national theatre of 1886 and lined with cafés and embassies. It is the evening promenade of the city.

Three countries on the Danube

Bratislava is the only capital that borders two other countries, Austria and Hungary, and the Danube flows past all three. Around it are a castle where the Iron Curtain ran, a Roman frontier city, wine villages and an art museum in the river. Half a day to a full day by car or bike.

Devín Castle · A ruined castle on a rock where the Morava flows into the Danube, at the border with Austria. Under communism the Iron Curtain ran along the rivers here, and hundreds of people were killed trying to escape across them; a memorial called the Gate of Freedom stands below the castle.
Hainburg · Just across the border in Austria, a town of medieval walls and gates. The story says part of the ransom paid for Richard the Lionheart, captured on his way home from the crusade, went into building these walls.
Carnuntum · The Roman city on the Danube frontier, with fifty thousand people at its height. The emperor Marcus Aurelius stayed here during his wars against the Germanic tribes and wrote part of his Meditations in this camp. A great ruined gate, the Heidentor, still stands in the fields.
Danubiana · A museum of modern art built at the tip of a narrow spit in the middle of the Danube, shaped like a Roman galley, with sculptures in the garden around it and water on three sides.
Pezinok · North-east of the city the slopes of the Small Carpathians are covered with vineyards, and Pezinok is the wine town of the route, with cellars under its old houses. In autumn the villages open their cellars for the new wine.
Červený Kameň · The Red Stone castle was built in the sixteenth century by the Fuggers, the great banking family of Augsburg, as a fortress over vast cellars for storing goods; later the Hungarian Pálffy family turned it into a residence.

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Getting to Bratislava and getting around

Bratislava Airport · Twenty minutes to the centre; Vienna airport is about forty-five minutes
Hlavná stanica · Trains to Vienna in about an hour

Cheap eats in Bratislava

Slovak food is mountain food: bryndzové halušky, small potato dumplings in a sauce of tangy sheep’s cheese with crisp bacon, is the national dish; lokše are potato pancakes; and the city’s own sweet is the Bratislava roll, a crescent of pastry filled with walnut or poppy seed, protected by the EU. The drink is Kofola, a Czechoslovak cola, or wine from the Small Carpathians. A plate of halušky costs a few euro.

Hlavné námestie · Bryndzové halušky in the old town
Michael’s Gate · Bratislava rolls in the bakeries
Pezinok · Wine in the cellars of the Small Carpathians
Eurovea · Cafés on the Danube promenade
UFO · Dinner in the flying saucer

Museums in Bratislava

Bratislava’s museums tell of the Hungarian kings, the Jewish community of Pressburg, and the Romans on the Danube frontier.

Museum of Jewish Culture · The Jewish history of Pressburg
Primate’s Palace · The Hall of Mirrors and the tapestries
Bratislava Castle · The Slovak history museum
Danubiana · Modern art in the river
Carnuntum · Rebuilt Roman houses

Nature and day trips near Bratislava

The Danube flows wide through the city, the forested Small Carpathians start at its edge, and the river meadows of the Morava are a bird reserve.

Kamzík · Forest trails and the tower
Devín Castle · The meeting of two rivers
Sad Janka Kráľa · The old park across the river
Eurovea · Cycling along the Danube

Things to do in Bratislava with kids

With children: hunting for the bronze statues, a flying saucer on a bridge, a castle ruin on a rock and a Roman city.

Čumil · The man in the manhole
UFO · The lift up the bridge pylon
Devín Castle · Explore the ruins
Carnuntum · A Roman town to walk through

Holy places in Bratislava

Pressburg was a city of three peoples — Germans, Hungarians and Slovaks — and of a great Jewish community; its cathedral crowned kings and its rabbi led a whole stream of Judaism.

Chatam Sofer Memorial · The rabbi’s grave, a place of pilgrimage
Heydukova Synagogue · The surviving synagogue
St Martin’s Cathedral · The coronation cathedral
Blue Church · The Art Nouveau church

Nightlife in Bratislava

Bratislava’s old town is full of bars and is a favourite for weekend parties from abroad; quieter evenings are on the Danube promenade or in the UFO over the river.

Hlavné námestie · Bars in the old town lanes
UFO · A cocktail eighty-five metres up
Hviezdoslavovo námestie · The opera and the evening promenade

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Frequently asked questions about Bratislava

What is there to see in Bratislava?

The top sights in Bratislava are Bratislava Castle, St Martin’s Cathedral and Museum of Jewish Culture. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.

How many days do you need in Bratislava?

Three to four days are enough to see the best of Bratislava without rushing, including at least one walking tour.

Is there a free walking tour in Bratislava?

Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Bratislava, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The coronation city.

How do you get to Bratislava and get around?

The main ways are Bratislava Airport and Hlavná stanica. Full details are in the transport section on this page.

Where to stay in Bratislava, and for how much?

sleepntrip shows only rooms in Bratislava that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.

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