Bratislava

Sister cities

• Kraków
• Kyiv

History

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…

Geography

Bratislava is situated in southwestern Slovakia, within the Bratislava Region. Its location on the borders with Austria and Hungary makes it the only national capital that borders two countries. It is only from the border with Hungary and only from the Austrian capital Vienna. The city has a total area of , making it the second-largest city in Slovakia by area (after the township of Vysoké Tatry). Bratislava straddles the Danube, along which it had developed and for centuries the chief transportation route to other areas. The river passes through the city from the west to the southeast. The Middle Danube basin begins at Devín Gate in western Bratislava. Other rivers are the Morava River, which forms the northwestern border of the city and enters the Danube at Devín, the Little Danube, and the Vydrica, which enters the Danube in the borough of Karlova Ves. The Carpathian mountain range begins in city territory with the Little Carpathians (Malé Karpaty). The Záhorie and Danubian lowlands stretch into Bratislava. The city's lowest point is at the Danube's surface at above mean sea level, and the highest point is Devínska Kobyla at . The average altitude is . Bratislava has recently shifted into the humid subtropical climate under Köppen–Geiger climate classification (Cfa), closely bordering on Dfa, and is classified as temperate oceanic climate under Trewartha climate classification (Doak), It is in USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 7b with a mean annual temperature of around , an average temperature of in the warmest month and in the coldest month, four distinct seasons and precipitation spread rather evenly throughout the year. It is often windy with a marked variation between hot summers and cold, humid winters. There can also sometimes be a significant difference in…

Most-observed species

• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  5,931
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  5,054
• Hooded Crow

  Corvus cornix Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  4,932
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  3,798
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,715
• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  3,694
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  3,475
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,078

Most recent

• M 3.9 — 2026-02-21
  11 km ESE of Šamorín, Slovakia
• M 4 — 2023-03-30
  1 km WNW of Buchbach, Austria
• M 3.9 — 2021-04-19
  3 km SW of Wiener Neustadt, Austria
• M 4 — 2021-03-30
  3 km NW of Lanzenkirchen, Austria
• M 4.2 — 2016-04-25
  3 km NNE of Heiligenkreuz, Austria
• M 3.6 — 2013-10-02
  2 km ENE of Unterwaltersdorf, Austria