July 2019
Highly recommended by MS, fellow world-traveler and photographer, I went out to visit Devin Castle on my second visit to Bratislava [see: Bratislava].
Devín castle is one of the oldest castles in Slovakia. The castle was likely first mentioned in written sources in 864, when Louis the German besieged Prince Rastislav in one of the frequent wars between the Franks and Great Moravia respectively in the "castle of Dowina".
Not much remains of Devin Castle having been destroyed by Napoleon's troops in 1809 (with some crying foul that it was a spiteful rather than strategic demolition). Such the shame, because the castle would have been one of the greatest between Vienna and Budapest along the Danube.
I missed Devin Castle on my first visit [see: Beijing to Athens], perhaps out of ignorance or perhaps it was not that easy to get to. After all, it towered right above the Iron Curtain at the time. The Danube and Morava rivers must have mocked the Slovaks since they could view "free" Austria just a stone's throw away. Nonetheless the site did remain open during the Cold War and the base of it was fortified heavily to prevent people from escaping to the West.
The castle stands just inside Slovak territory on the frontier between Slovakia and Austria. The border runs from west to east along the Morava River and subsequently the Danube. Prior to 1989, the Iron Curtain between the Eastern Bloc and the West ran just in front of the castle. Although the castle was open to the public, the area surrounding it constituted a restricted military zone and was heavily fortified with watchtowers and barbed wire. After the Velvet Revolution the area was demilitarized.
(Wikipedia)
MS was right that the views from the castle were great and I chose to arrive by boat from Bratislava [see: Danube Cruising] which made for a beautiful and dramatic (if slow) arrival. The castle literally stood on the last bit of the Carpathian mountains which progressively marched higher and higher in Slovakia, took a right turn, and became the Tatra Mountains which divided that country and Poland. The castle was in total ruin though. Napoleon had shown no mercy. The visit was really about the view.
Below the castle by the confluence of the Danube and Morava Rivers were sheer cliffs and a riverine pathway punctuated by pieces of art. Those artworks and memorials commemorated the Slovaks who perished trying to cross the little Morava River into Austria. The monuments were stirring and dark - especially for people like me who grew up in the Cold War. A heart made of barbed wire made from the actual barrier fence particularly haunted me.
It was the end of a hot day when I visited and I returned to the boat in time for a quick glass of Prosecco and a treat. The trip back to Bratislava took half the time because we were flowing with the current - the Danube's flow is powerful. Devin Castle stuck in my mind for its beautiful views of the present and its dark window into the recent past.