More public art

My favorite public art so far resulted from a student art competition. The winning entries on the theme of Van Gogh are displayed in the windows of this building adjacent to St. Martin’s Dome. This building has yet to be restored, and the paintings provide a welcome temporary brightening of the crumbling structure.

St. Martin’s, just east of the communist-built expressway, dates back to the 16th century and was the coronation site for 11 kings and 8 queens of Hungary (of which Bratislava was the capital for several hundred years).

On some days, an enterprising performance artist sets up shop by “The Gazer” statue, with his hat out for tourist donations.

A few yards down Rybárskabrána from The Gazer is a dapper old man with a hat in his hand, Schööne Naci (“nice old man” – no relation to the Nazis). My department head alerted me to this one. It is based on a real person who died about 40 years ago, but was famous throughout the city. Walking all day along on the streets, he greeted the ladies in the traditional Viennese manner, kissing their hands, wearing white gloves and a hat all the times. I’m told he was considered a bit crazy but very nice.

Andy Warhol sits outside the Camouflage Restaurant on Venturska in the Pedestrian Zone.

The biggest square in Old Town is Hviezdoslavovo Námestie, named after the most popular Slovak poet, Josef Hviezdoslav. I have been trying to think of major American squares or parks named after beloved poets – Walt Whitman, perhaps?

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Escape to the West

In the west, we heard regularly in the 1970s and 1980s about daring escape attempts over the Berlin Wall or smuggling to get people through Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. But we did not hear about the escape attempts and fortifications along the border for the Iron Curtain that kept citizens of the other Soviet satellite states from leaving for the west.

I took this high on the hill of the Bratislava Castle (Hrad) looking west. Bratislava straddles both sides of the Danube at the bottom of the picture. In the distance are the aluminum windmills generating power in eastern Austria. The border between Slovakia and Austria is just a few miles from the Castle, but that escape route to the west was blocked with heavy fortifications before the fall of communism in 1989. I understand there were double fences, one electrified, with a heavy military presence to block escape.

A little to the north of this Castle, high on a hill overlooking the Danube, are the crumbling remnants of the medieval Devin Castle, the site of another communist-era outpost. I hear from locals that the communists stood guard there, watching for Slovaks attempting to escape north on the Danube to freedom in Vienna, with sharpshooters aiming at people in the river. I do not have my own picture yet, but here is information from the Bratislava City website: http://www.bratislava.sk/en/vismo5/dokumenty2.asp?u=700000&id_org=700000&id=2006014

People readily move across the Austrian border today, but they face a different set of hurdles attempting to visit the U.S. We, as U.S. citizens, can visit Slovakia with merely a passport; no visa is required for visits up to 90 days. (Fulbrighters are here on residence permits they arranged for us.) But Slovaks visiting the U.S. must obtain a visa from the U.S. Embassy. When President Bush visited Bratislava in February 2005 (the first visit ever from a U.S. President), he thanked the Slovaks for sending 100 soldiers to the “Coalition of the Willing” for the Iraq war, and he promised that Slovakia would get priority in waiving visa requirements for visiting the U.S. Over two years later, the Slovaks have not forgotten that promise, but they seem to think President Bush has.

Here is the State Department news release on that 2005 visit: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2005&m=February&x=20050224161237btruevecer0.7643549

At the Embassy reception on 9/11, I remember the Ambassador making what seemed like very delicately phrased references to “the visa issues,” directed to the Slovak Prime Minister. Now I understand how raw that issue is with the Slovaks.

When the Prime Minister visited the White House in March 2006, the issue came up again. The State Department posted a press release that acknowledges how pressing this issue is for Slovaks: http://usinfo.state.gov/gi/Archive/2006/Mar/14-970213.html

Here is an update on the visa issue in the Slovak Spectator from June 2007: http://www.slovakspectator.sk/clanok-28235.html

A long line of people every morning outside the U.S. Embassy waits to apply for visas to visit the U.S.

One of our guest lecturers during Fulbright orientation this week told us horrifying stories about the humiliating interview one must endure to get a U.S. visa. While talking to the visa clerk, in clear earshot of dozens of other Slovaks waiting for their interviews, all sorts of personal questions about income and family are asked. As U.S. citizens, we thought that our Privacy Act restrictions would prevent such a thing for us and wondered why the same courtesy was not extended to the Slovaks to at least have their interview in private. We certainly understand the fear of admitting terrorists to the U.S. after 9/11, but wondered why the U.S. could not show a little more courtesy and respect to people trying to enter the country for legitimate purposes.

During President Bush’s visit in 2005, he met with President Putin of Russia in one of the rooms here inside Bratislava Castle. Apparently it is a high-security room, not open to visitors, so we could only peer through what appeared to be thick security glass.

Here’s the U.S. Embassy’s press release about the 2005 visit: http://www.usembassy.sk/topic/20050224_bps/index.php?touch=flow&i=01&si=01&sm=1&tdi=art04.html

NOTE: Click on any image in this blog to see it full-size.