Devín Castle

Why visit

Devín stands on a rock above the confluence of the Morava and the Danube, on today’s border with Austria. People settled here in prehistory, the Romans guarded the frontier from here, and it later became a Great Moravian stronghold and a border fortress of the Kingdom of Hungary.

Napoleon’s troops blew the castle up in the early 19th century. The ruins later became a symbol for the Slovak national movement and are now one of the country’s most important archaeological sites.

What to see

• Upper, middle and lower castle: walls, foundations and reconstructions that you can walk through from the gate to the rock top.
• Maiden Tower: a small tower on a lone rock high above the river, the most photographed spot at Devín.
• Great Moravian remains: foundations of early Christian buildings uncovered by archaeologists.
• Exhibitions: the Bratislava City Museum shows hundreds of archaeological finds and the castle’s history in the caves of the upper castle and the cellars of the middle castle.
• Views: the confluence of the two rivers, the Austrian bank and the Little Carpathians.

Plan your visit

Admission is paid. Opening hours change with the season, the upper castle exhibition is closed in winter and the site may close in snow or ice.

Paths are steep and uneven, so wear good shoes; allow one and a half to two hours. A bus from the city centre takes about 25 minutes.