Bratislava Castle: Encyclopedia II - Bratislava Castle - The castle site

Bratislava Castle - The castle site

The castle site includes the following:

Bratislava Castle - Castle building the Palace

The castle building includes 4 towers (one on each corner) and a courtyard with a 80m deep water well. The biggest tower is the Crown Tower in the south-west from the 13th century, which housed the crown jewels (see History) . The outside walls and inside corridors contain fragments of old Gothic and Renaissance construction elements. To the east of the main entrance, one can see the walled up entrance gate from the 16th century. Behind the entrance, there is an arcade corridor and then the big Baroque staircase, which leads to the expositions of the Slovak National Museum (Slovenské národné múzeum). The left part of the southern part of the building houses the 4 halls of the Treasure Chamber (opened in 1988) with a collection of the most precious archaeological findings and other objects found in Slovakia, including the prehistoric statute called the Venus of Moravany. The 3rd floor houses the exposition History of Slovakia. The 1st floor in the southern part of the building houses the rooms of Slovak parliament - the National Council of the Slovak Republic - including parts of furniture from the 16th century. The northern part of the building- the former Baroque chapel, houses the Music Hall in which concerts are held. The court yard includes the entrance to the Knights Hall.

Bratislava Castle - Entrance Gates to the site

• Sigismund Gate in the south-east– the best preserved original part of the site, built in the 15th century
• Vienna Gate in the south-west – built in 1712
• Nicholas Gate in the north-east – built in the 16th century

Bratislava Castle - Other buildings and objects

To the west of the castle building (see the picture), there is the newly reconstructed Hillebrandt building built in 1762 and destroyed by the 1811 fire (see History). The Yard of Honor is the space directly before the castle entrance. It was created in the late 18th century.
Behind the Sigismund Gate and in front of the castle building, there is the Leopold Yard from the 17th century with bastions.
To the east of the castle building the constellation of the Great Moravian basilica (9th century), the Church of St. Savior (11th century) and other Early medieval objects is indicated on the ground. The true archeological findings are directly below this indicated constellation.
To the north-east of the castle building, next to the Nicholas Gate, there is the Lugiland Bastion (which was a Gothic entrance gate in the 15th century), a long building from the 17th century (today a building of National Council of the Slovak Republic), and a Baroque stable (today a famous restaurant). An English park is located to the south of the stable.
The whole northern border of the castle site is formed by a long Baroque building from the 18th century, which today houses the Slovak National Museum and the castle administration.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The castle site", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki