The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
The Mitteleuropa city that feels like a film noir set
Long the haunt of invading troops rather than foreign tourists, Slovakia’s capital Bratislava is seductive and slightly spooky, says William Cook
Lounging in the Mirror Bar of the Carlton Hotel, knocking back a shot of Borovicka, the potent local liqueur, I have a sudden sense of déjà vu – which is odd, because this is my first time in Bratislava. Then I down another shot, and I realise why this strange setting feels so familiar. The opulent, old-fashioned cocktail bar, with its courteous, eccentric bartenders, is just like a scene from one of my favourite films, Wes Anderson’s homage to Mitteleuropa, The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Anderson’s dream-like movie wasn’t set in Bratislava, but nowhere else I have been sums up its surreal ambience better than this decadent drinking den, cocooned within this grand hotel. Like Bratislava itself, the Carlton Hotel has experienced an extraordinary fall and rise, from the 19th century to the 21st, from capitalism to communism and back again.
In a prime position on the River Danube, Bratislava has always been coveted by the competing empires of Central Europe. Before railways and motorways, the Danube was the continent’s main thoroughfare, and whoever controlled Bratislava controlled traffic between Vienna and Budapest. Consequently, it has been a prize for every European despot, occupied by Hungarians, Austrians, Germans and Russians.
Until the end of the First World War, Bratislava was part of the Habsburg Empire and, during the Second, it was the capital of Nazi-controlled Slovakia. It then became part of Soviet-controlled Czechoslovakia and, when Czechoslovakia threw off the Soviet yoke in 1989, part of an independent Czechoslovakia again. In the Velvet Divorce of 1993, it finally became the capital of an independent Slovakia.
Living here through all those changes can’t have been much fun at all – but if you are a visitor, Bratislava’s turbulent past is fascinating. From baroque palaces to bourgeois villas, from communist apartment blocks to shiny new skyscrapers, every epoch has left its mark upon the city.
The best place to begin a tour of Bratislava is at its robust hilltop castle (snm.sk). Though the main building is medieval, the foundations date back to Roman times. There is an excellent museum inside, but the best thing about this rugged fortress is the view. From these windswept battlements you look down on the quaint Old Town below, the Belle-Époque suburbs, the brutalist outskirts and the wooded hills beyond. Snaking through it all is the mighty River Danube, which runs all the way from the Black Forest to the Black Sea.
Bratislava is a sprawling city with half a million inhabitants, but the pedestrianised centre is compact and easy to explore on foot. It is pleasant rather than spectacular, a mishmash of styles, from Rococo to Art Nouveau.
There are a few drab relics of the communist era, but most of the Old Town has been beautifully restored. There is a smattering of sightseers, but none of the big tourist groups you get in Prague.
Bratislava City Museum (mmb.sk) gives you a good overview of the city’s medieval heritage, but if you are more interested in modern history you don’t need to visit a museum. Anyone over 40 has their own tale to tell.
My guide, Eva, lived through two revolutions here. As a child, she witnessed the failed uprising of 1968, when attempts to liberalise the Soviet system were brutally repressed by Russian troops. As a young mother in 1989, she joined a new generation of brave protesters. Incredibly, this time they were successful.
Yet there is more to Bratislava than history lessons. A lively modern city with an invigorating nightlife and a wide range of stylish cocktail bars, by night it is seductive and slightly spooky: an ideal setting for a film noir.
Stanislav and Peter from the Mirror Bar took me on a nocturnal tour, to the rooftop Sky Bar (skybar.sk) to drink
in the stunning views across the city, then on to the Antique American Bar, a debonair hideaway straight out of a short story by Graham Greene or Ernest Hemingway. We ended up at Michalska (cocktailroom.sk), a cosy speakeasy behind an unmarked door, a Narnia for boozy insomniacs.
On my final evening in the city, we drove out to Eck (eckrestaurant.com) – a chic modern restaurant with its own winery, surrounded by vineyards, on a hill above the Danube. On the other side is Austria.
You sense you are in the heart of Europe here, on the border between the Slavic and Teutonic worlds. There are only six tables, and there is only one setting for dinner. Waiters glide between the open kitchen and the tables, bearing exquisite little dishes. The tasting menu isn’t cheap, but I can’t recall the last time I ate such fine food.
Next morning I walked out to Sky Park (skypark.sk), a cluster of sleek tower blocks designed by the late Anglo-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid. A new downtown has sprouted up around these iconic buildings. The Old Town is where visitors go to party, but this is where locals come to work.
I dropped in on Tomáš Šajgal, a Slovak sommelier with his own wine shop and bistro, Mad Wines (madwines.wtf). Eating brunch together in his smart little shop, it was hard to believe this enterprising capital was ever communist.
I spent my last few hours in Bratislava wandering around the art scene. I started at Nedbalka (nedbalka.sk), a private gallery on a quiet side street at the edge of the Old Town. Its superb collection of Slovak art stretches from the late 1800s to the late 1900s, reflecting the huge upheavals of that turbulent century and the heroic artists who fought against the status quo.
I ended up at the Slovak National Gallery (ng.sk), a big modern building on the waterfront. There was more Slovakian art inside, but what attracted my attention was the visiting schoolchildren. They seemed so happy and excited, and their happiness and excitement was infectious.
I thought what a nice place Bratislava would be to grow up in nowadays – so different from the time when my guide Eva was at school here, behind the Iron Curtain, and you had to be careful what you said lest it get you into trouble.
Today, the Cold War seems like a bad dream in Bratislava. Slovakia is now in the European Union, the Eurozone and Nato. The country’s quirky capital has had more than its fair share of bad luck and deserves its current good times, as a destination for foreign tourists rather than foreign troops. However, as the Slovaks know best of all, here at the crossroads of Central Europe, peace and prosperity are never guaranteed.