High-Rises Are Changing the Slovak Capital of Bratislava Beyond Recognition
Bratislava authorities are hoping to balance a rush of residential and commercial development along the Danube River with the character that distinguishes the city from other European capitals.
The Sky Park towers designed by architect Zaha Hadid in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Photographer: Marijan Murat/picture alliance/Getty Images
As construction workers dug foundations for a high-rise in downtown Bratislava in September, they uncovered a 500-pound bomb, undetonated and forgotten. The site, on the northern banks of the Danube River, was part of a vast wasteland for three decades, a reminder of the city’s wartime destruction and post-Soviet decay.
The excavations — briefly delayed while experts disposed of the World War II ordnance — are helping to change that. No longer a dark scar on the city’s map full of aging warehouses behind rusting fences and abandoned lots overtaken by greenery, this section of downtown is now home to two-dozen gleaming new buildings, crowned by the Slovak capital’s first skyscraper over 150 meters (500 feet). More than $3 billion has flowed into projects, including buildings designed by world-renowned architects Zaha Hadid and Stefano Boeri, filling in gaps in the city’s urban fabric and reshaping its identity.