Devín Castle

Devín Castle Devínsky hrad
Bratislava Devín Slovakia
The ruins of Devín Castle
Type	Castle
Site information
Controlled by	Great Moravia, Kingdom of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Slovakia
Open to the public	nonstop, opening hours apply to the museum
Condition	Ruins (partially reconstructed)
Site history
Built	864 – 15th century Last fortifications built in the 17th century
Events	Notable events in the castle's life: Blown-up during the Napoleonic Wars in 1809

Notable events in the castle's life:

Devín Castle (Slovak: hrad Devín [ˈɦrad ˈɟeʋiːn] or Devínsky hrad [ˈɟeʋiːnski ˈɦrat], Hungarian: Dévényi vár, German: Burg Theben) is a castle in Devín, which is a borough of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.

Owing to its strategic position at the confluence of the Danube and Morava rivers, the cliff (elevation 212 meters) was an ideal place for a fort. Its owner could control the important trade route along the Danube as well as one branch of the Amber Road. That is why the site has been settled since the Neolithic and fortified since the Bronze and Iron Age. Later, both the Celts and the Romans built strong fortresses there.

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 demilitarised.