My idea of the Danube was almost entirely formed by reading Greenmantle, by John Buchan, in which Richard Hannay smuggles himself onto a chain of barges carry arms down the Danube from Germany bound for Turkey.
This great river on which civilisations and empires were built is no longer the main artery on which even countries depend now. There is still some barge traffic but it is no longer a major trade route and mostly it is plied by tourist boats or nothing at all as my picture shows.
I took it a couple of hours walk up the river at Hrad (Castle) Devín, a ruined castle that has been a settlement since Neolithic times. It reminds me of the so-called Cathar castles in France.
The architecture in Bratislava is worth mentioning. Look across the Danube to the west towards Austria and there is a jumble of high-rise housing estates built of concrete in the 1950s by the Russians but within the main part of the city the most famous part and most touristy is the Old Town. This has been encroached upon by new roads and bridges but a small pedestrian enclave remains. Some parts are very old. In the castle there is the remains of a 9th century chapel – actually only the layout of the foundations – and elsewhere medieval buildings but most are Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo and Secessionist.
The Secessionist style is peculiar to this part of the world and, at first, I was confused. There are two different Secessionist periods. The first is the buildings that were constructed in Hungary after 1740, when Marie Therese of Austria became Queen of Hungary and Hungary started to establish its own identity, distinct from Vienna. The second is what in the rest of Europe is called Art Nouveau and was buit 1890-1910. The most famous example here is the Church of St Elizabeth, known as the Blue Church, and built in 1907/08.
Perhaps there will be a third Secessionist period to describe buildings after the secession of Slovakia from the Czech Republic?
In the prosperous residential district between the Old Town and the Castle I have noticed three abandoned and dilapidated mansions. I can only guess that their ownership is in dispute after the fall of the Soviet Union, or like the old In and Out, they are failed property developments.
