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Main article: History of Bratislava
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Bratislava.
Biatec, presumably a king, who appeared on the Celtic coins minted by the Boii at the current location of Bratislava, 1st century B.C.Gerulata, a Roman Empire military camp, built in the 2nd century A.D. at the current location of BratislavaBattle of Bratislava in 907
The first known permanent settlement of the area began with the Linear Pottery Culture, around 5000 B.C. in the Neolithic era. About 200 B.C., the Celtic Boii tribe founded the first significant settlement, a fortified town known as the Bratislava oppidum. They also established a mint, producing gold and silver coins known as biatecs.
The area fell under Roman influence from the 1st to the 4th century A.D. and was made part of the Danubian Limes, a border defence system. The Romans introduced grape growing to the area and began a tradition of winemaking, which survives to the present.
The Slavs arrived from the East between the 5th and 6th centuries during the Migration Period. As a response to onslaughts by Avars, the local Slavic tribes rebelled and established Samo's Empire (623–658), the first known Slavic political entity. In the 9th century, the castles at Bratislava (Brezalauspurk) and Devín (Dowina) were important centres of the Slavic states: the Principality of Nitra and Great Moravia. Scholars have debated the identification as fortresses of the two castles built in Great Moravia, based on linguistic arguments and because of the absence of convincing archaeological evidence.
The first written reference to a settlement named "Brezalauspurc" dates to 907 and is related to the Battle of Pressburg, during which a Bavarian army was defeated by the Hungarians. It is connected to the fall of Great Moravia, already weakened by its own inner decline and under the attacks of the Hungarians. The exact location of the battle remains unknown, and some interpretations place it west of Lake Balaton.
In the 10th century, the territory of Pressburg (what would later become Pozsony county) became part of Hungary (called the "Kingdom of Hungary" from 1000). It developed as a key economic and administrative centre on the kingdom's frontier. In 1052, German Emperor Henry III undertook a fifth campaign against the Kingdom of Hungary, and besieged Pressburg without success, as the Hungarians sank his supply ships on the river Danube. This strategic position destined the city to be the site of frequent attacks and battles, but also brought it economic development and high political status. It was granted its first known "town privileges" in 1291 by the Hungarian King Andrew III, and was declared a free royal city (Libera Regia Civitas). Confirmation and expansion of privileges was made in 1405 by King Sigismund. In 1436, he authorised the town to use its own coat of arms.
The earliest known depiction of Pressburg Castle (Chronicon Pictum, 1358)Pressburg (Bratislava) in 1588
The Kingdom of Hungary was defeated by the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Mohács in 1526. The Ottomans besieged and damaged Pressburg, but failed to conquer it. Owing to Ottoman advances into Hungarian territory, the city was designated the new capital of Hungary in 1536, after becoming part of the Habsburg monarchy and marking the beginning of a new era. The city became a coronation town and the seat of kings, archbishops (1543), the nobility, and all major organisations and offices. Between 1536 and 1830, eleven Hungarian kings and queens were crowned at St. Martin's Cathedral.
The 17th century was marked by anti-Habsburg uprisings, fighting with the Ottomans, floods, plagues, and other disasters, which diminished the population. Great epidemics were spreading in Bratislava in 1541–1542, 1552–1553, 1660–1665, and 1678–1681. A terrible outbreak of 1678–1681 left approximately 11,000 casualties among Bratislava's residents (the city population was in that time around 30,000 people). The last plague outbreak of Bratislava was between the years 1712–1713.
Pressburg flourished during the 18th-century reign of Queen Maria Theresa, becoming the largest and most important town in the Kingdom of Hungary. The population tripled; many new palaces, monasteries, mansions, and streets were built, and the city was the centre of social and cultural life of the region. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart gave a concert in 1762 in the Pálffy Palace. Joseph Haydn performed in 1784 in the Grassalkovich Palace. Ludwig van Beethoven was a guest in 1796 in the Keglevich Palace.
The Plague Column, built in 1713Coronation of Maria Theresa in 1741Maria Theresa's ride in Bratislava, 1747
The city started to lose its importance under the reign of Maria Theresa's son Joseph II, especially after the crown jewels were taken to Vienna in 1783 in an attempt to strengthen the relations between Austria and Hungary. Many central offices subsequently moved to Buda, followed by a large segment of the nobility. The first newspapers in Hungarian and Slovak were published here: Magyar hírmondó in 1780, and Presspurske Nowiny in 1783. In the course of the 18th century, the city became a centre for the Slovak national movement.[citation needed]
The city's 19th-century history was closely tied to the major events in Europe. The Peace of Pressburg between the Austrian Empire and French Empire was signed here in 1805. Devín Castle was ruined by Napoleon's French troops during an invasion of 1809. In 1825, the Hungarian National Learned Society (the present Hungarian Academy of Sciences) was founded in Pressburg using a donation from István Széchenyi. In 1843, Hungarian was proclaimed the official language in legislation, public administration, and education by the Diet in the city.
Devín Castle, turned to ruins by Napoleon Bonaparte's French army in 1809.In 1811, a huge fire raged through Bratislava Castle, destroying the main palace and more than 70 nearby houses.Pressburg (Bratislava) in the 19th century
As a reaction to the Revolutions of 1848, Ferdinand V signed the so-called April laws, which included the abolition of serfdom, at the Primate's Palace. The city chose the revolutionary Hungarian side, but was captured by the Austrians in December 1848.
Industry developed rapidly in the 19th century. The first horse-drawn railway in the Kingdom of Hungary, from Pressburg to Szentgyörgy (Svätý Jur), was built in 1840. A new line to Vienna using steam locomotives was opened in 1848, and a line to Pest in 1850. Many new industrial, financial, and other institutions were founded; for example, the first bank in present-day Slovakia was founded in 1842. The city's first permanent bridge over the Danube, Starý most (Old Bridge), was built in 1891. Between the years 1867–1918, the territory of Pressburg became part of Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Before World War I, the city had a population that was 42% German, 41% Hungarian, and 15% Slovak (1910 census). The first post-war census in 1919 declared the city's ethnic composition at 36% German, 33% Slovak, and 29% Hungarian, but this may have reflected changing self-identification, rather than an exchange of peoples. Many people were bi- or trilingual and multicultural.[citation needed]
After World War I, the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire began. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and the United States played a major role in the establishment of the new Czechoslovak state. American Slovaks proposed renaming the city "Wilsonovo mesto" (Wilson City), after Woodrow Wilson.
On October 28, 1918, Czechoslovakia was proclaimed, but its borders were not settled for several months. The dominant Hungarian and German population tried to prevent annexation of the city to Czechoslovakia and declared it a free city, while the Hungarian Prime Minister Károlyi protested against the Czech invasion. The Slovak National Assembly, meanwhile, called it a "defensive action of the Slovaks themselves, to end the anarchy caused by the flight of the Hungarians." The Allies of World War I drew a provisional demarcation line, which was revealed to the Hungarian government on December 23, in the document known as the Vix Note. The Czechoslovak Legion arrived from Italy, began to advance on December 30, 1918, and by January 2, 1919, all important civil and military buildings were in Czechoslovak hands. It was the beginning of the conflict, which later continued as the Hungarian–Czechoslovak War. The city became the seat of Slovakia's political organs and organizations and became Slovakia's capital on February 4.
Pressburg (Bratislava) in 1915 during World War ICzechoslovak Legion at the Old Bridge (Starý most) in Bratislava during Hungarian–Czechoslovak War, 1919
On March 27, 1919, the name Bratislava was officially adopted for the first time to replace the previous Slovak name Prešporok.
At the beginning of August 1919, Czechoslovakia got permission to correct the borders for strategic reasons, mainly to secure the port and to prevent a potential attack of the Hungarian Army on the town. On the night of August 14, 1919, barefoot Czechoslovak soldiers silently climbed to the Hungarian side of the Starý most (Old Bridge), captured the guards, and annexed Petržalka (currently part of Bratislava's 5th district) without a fight. The Paris Peace Conference assigned the area to Czechoslovakia to create a bridgehead for the newly created Czechoslovak state for controlling the Danube.
Left without any protection after the retreat of the Hungarian army, many Hungarians were expelled or fled. Czechs and Slovaks moved their households to Bratislava. Education in Hungarian and German was radically reduced in the city. By the 1930 Czechoslovak census, the Hungarian population of Bratislava had decreased to 15.8% (see the Demographics of Bratislava article for more details).
In 1938, Nazi Germany annexed neighbouring Austria in the Anschluss; on October 10, 1938, based on the Munich Agreement it also annexed (still-separate from Bratislava) Petržalka and Devín boroughs on ethnic grounds, as these had many ethnic Germans. Petržalka was renamed as Engerau and Devín was renamed as Theben an der March. The Starý most (Old Bridge) became a border bridge between Czechoslovakia and Nazi Germany.[citation needed]
German Führer Adolf Hitler on his visit to Bratislava after Munich Betrayal, October 1938Bombing of Bratislava by the United States Army Air Forces, during the Nazi occupation in 1944.
Bratislava was declared the capital of the first independent Slovak Republic on March 14, 1939, but the new state quickly fell under Nazi influence. In 1941–1942 and 1944–1945, the new Slovak government cooperated in deporting most of Bratislava's approximately 15,000 Jews; they were transported to concentration camps, where most were killed or died before the end of the war in the Holocaust.
Bratislava, occupied by German troops, was many times bombarded by the Allies. Major air raids included the bombing of Bratislava and its refinery Apollo on June 16, 1944, by American B-24 bombers of the Fifteenth Air Force with 181 victims. The Bombardment group attacked in four waves with overall 158 planes. On April 4, 1945, Bratislava was liberated by the Soviet Red Army 2nd Ukrainian Front during the Bratislava–Brno offensive. The Czechoslovak government and president Edvard Beneš then moved to Bratislava on May 8.
At the end of World War II, most of Bratislava's ethnic Germans were evacuated by the German authorities. A few returned after the war, but were soon expelled without their properties under the Beneš decrees, part of a widespread expulsion of ethnic Germans from eastern Europe.
After World War II, Slovak Republic lost its so-called independence and was reunified again with the Czech Republic as Czechoslovak Republic. Engerau (currently part of Bratislava's 5th district) and Theben an der March (currently part of Bratislava's 4th district) were returned to Czechoslovakia and renamed back to Petržalka and Devín. Furthermore, after signing the Peace Treaty of Paris on February 10, 1947, three Hungarian villages, namely Horvátjárfalu (Jarovce), Oroszvár (Rusovce), and Dunacsún (Čunovo) situated south of Bratislava were transferred to Czechoslovakia, to form the so-called "Bratislava bridgehead" (currently all three of them are part of Bratislava's 5th district).
After the Communist Party seized power in Czechoslovakia in February 1948, the city became part of the Eastern Bloc. The city annexed new land, and the population rose significantly, becoming 90% Slovak.[citation needed]
Soviet tank in Bratislava during the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968Iron Curtain memorial in Bratislava, 400 people were killed trying to cross the border into the West during the communist era.
Large residential areas consisting of high-rise prefabricated panel buildings, such as those in the Petržalka or Dúbravka borough, were built. The Communist government also built several new grandiose buildings, such as the Slovak Radio Building, Slavín, or Kamzík TV Tower. A quarter of Bratislava's Old Town was demolished in the late 1960s for a single project: the bridge of the Slovak National Uprising. To make space for this development, much of the city's centuries-old, historical Jewish quarter was razed, including the 19th-century Moorish-style Neolog Synagogue.
In 1968, after the unsuccessful Czechoslovak attempt to liberalise the Communist regime, the city was occupied by Warsaw Pact troops. Shortly thereafter, it became the capital of the Slovak Socialist Republic, one of the two states of the federalised Czechoslovakia.
Bratislava's dissidents anticipated the fall of Communism with the Bratislava candle demonstration in 1988, and the city became one of the foremost centres of the anti-Communist Velvet Revolution in 1989.
The end of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia in 1989 was followed once again by the country's dissolution, this time into two successor states. Czechoslovak Socialist Republic renamed as Czech and Slovak Federative Republic, the word "socialist" was dropped in the names of the two republics within the federation, the Slovak Socialist Republic renamed as the Slovak Republic.
In 1993, Bratislava once again became the capital of the newly formed independent Slovak Republic, following the Velvet Divorce.
