Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital and largest city in Slovakia. It has a population of almost 450,000 and is the administrative, cultural and economic center of the country.
Bratislava (before 1919 known as Prešporok in Slovak, Pressburg in German and English and Pozsony in Hungarian) has a very pleasant medieval inner city with tiny, narrow winding streets, surrounded by the biggest concrete block house complex (called "panelak", with blocks of flats; see Prague chapter for information about panelaks) in Central Europe called Petržalka that stretches on endlessly. So far, this looks no different from Prague. But Bratislava is an exception. It's so close to Vienna, it could practically be a suburb. Move further east and there are plenty of rural places. Farms, vineyards, agricultural land and tiny villages are situated just about 50 kilometers to the east of Bratislava, just like in the case of Vienna or Prague.
Today, Bratislava and its surroundings form the second most prosperous region in Central and Eastern Europe, with a per capita GDP of around 129.3% of the EU-25 average (after Prague).
After being an independent country till the 9th century, Slovakia was part of Austria-Hungary from the 10th / 11th century onwards until the empire's collapse after the First World War. Since then, it merged with Bohemia and Moravia to create Czechoslovakia from 1918 onwards, a country which Slovaks are widely proud of-- for example, most Czechoslovakian presidents, such as Aleksander Dubček and Gustav Husak, were ethnically Slovak.
During World War II, Slovakia was a formally independent Nazi puppet state, before being liberated by the Soviets to recreate a pro-Soviet Czechoslovakia. Between 1993 and 1998, the country's Prime Minister was the controversial official Vladimir Meciar, who did his country's image no favors.Finally Slovakia elected new officials, and that has made all the difference. The Slovaks are making an effort to be more international.
Bratislava was the capital (1536 - 1784), the coronation city(1563-1830) and the seat of the diet (1536 - 1848) of the Kingdom of Hungary for many years. Since 1960 it has been the capital of the federal state of Slovakia within Czechoslovakia and that country's second-largest and, since 1993, it has been the capital of independent Slovakia.
Although today, Bratislava's population are mostly Slovaks, from the 13th to the early 19th century, the majority ethnic group in the town were the Germans, who remained the largest ethnic group until the First World War. Hungarians formed another important group in the city in the 19th century, but after the First World War, many Germans and Hungarians left for Austria and Hungary respectively and the remaining Germans were evacuated at the end of World War II.
Bratislava's M. R. Stefanik International Airport (IATA: BTS) (ICAO: LZIB), has focused on attracting low-cost airlines recently and there are direct flight connections to Bratislava from many major cities around western Europe including London, Manchester, Paris, Rome, Amsterdam and Prague (which is now considered by many a major European city). Check out Sky Europe Airlines[2] for the greatest variety of flights from/to Bratislava. Ryanair[3] also has regular flights.
