Slavin monument

The Slavin monument, on the highest hill north of Old Town, is visible from just about everywhere in Bratislava. Today I decided to make the trek to see it up close.

Here is the main monument, with a mausoleum used for official events. The site is a military cemetery built by the Communists in 1960 to honor the 6,845 Soviet Red Army soldiers who died here fighting the Nazis.

Here is the main monument from the west. The names of Slovak cities "liberated" by the Soviets are engraved on the sides. Slovakia had been a separate nation from 1939-45, with a Nazi puppet government. The Communists took control in 1948, leading to a skeptical view of what "liberation" had meant.

At the far west of the site is a Peace Garden, installed at the urging of Alexander Dubček, the Slovak who led Czechoslovakia during the doomed "Prague Spring" in 1968. The signs are in both Slovak and English. It's easy to miss unless you are looking for it.

A map and sign are in several languages, including English. I wonder when that was installed. I understand that the teaching of English was prohibited by the Communists -- but many learned it anyway from television and radio signals they picked up from nearby Austria.

The site has a few rows of named markers, but most soldiers are buried in mass graves. I understand that some had been buried in Soviet Square closer to Old Town, and the remains were moved here when the site opened. As soon as Communism fell in 1989, that square was renamed to Floriánske námestie. This row of snow-covered markers looks to the east and a spectacular view of the city below.

This is the entrance marker with steps up to the site. The signage is entirely in Russian. I understand that the Communists required everybody to study Russian in school, but now hardly anybody admits to knowing it.

Visiting this site takes some effort. A small parking lot by the entrance is available for visitors who drive, but none of the public transportation lines goes near it. I took a tram headed toward the main train station and got off on a busy east-west street, Šancová. From there, I headed west over a pedestrian bridge crossing a busy north-south street, Štefánikova, then south for a block on Križková

From there, I trudged up endless flights of sidewalk steps to the site. It's impossible to get lost -- that monument is visible from everywhere. Here's one flight of steps. I took pictures of each flight, but you get the idea. For the trip back into town, I caught a south-bound bus on Štefánikova.

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