Devin

When googleing sights worth seeing in Bratislava the Devin castle is the most recommended one. So far I've thought that the castle is far away but as it turns out it is located inside Bratislava borders and the distance is quite walkable. So, since the summer is showing no intentions of leaving we decided to have a nice Saturday-walk with some wine to the castle.




The leaves are turning yellow, which would indicate that autumn is here. But when temperature is around 22 degrees every day it is a bit weird to think that it's already mid-October. I don't mind, though! Not at all!


Who or what built that?


Devin is a nice little town at the foot of the castle, right by the Slovakia-Austria border. Looking at the houses there I would guess that the town is quite new; the houses were rather modern for Slovak standards. As many Slovak towns, Devin also has wine producers. What I love about the local wines is that they are often not made of grapes, but of berries. And they are really good! Some of them probably too sweet for many people, but they also have dry wines. 





The castle resides on a hill right above the Danube river, which has always been a strategically favourable place for a castle. The first "version" of the castle dates as far as the Neolithic times (= long long time ago). The border right in front of the castle has been quite influential in our time as well: it was the line between the Eastern Bloc and the West until 1989, also known as the Iron Curtain. 

The tiny watchtover, Maiden Tower, (picture below) is built separately from the main building and has been a source of multiple legends of women being locked up there and in their desperation jumping out with severe consequences.



Hundreads of people attempted to escape from the Eastern Bloc right there, in front of the castle, by climbing over a wall that existed along the river at that time. 400 of them were shot dead before reaching the freedom on the other side.

By this monument I was once again reminded of the horrible history that this country has had to endure until only few dozen years ago. My country could just as well have been one of the unfortunate ones that had to succumb under the Communist rule. The longer I live here and the more I learn about this country and the ones around it, the more I appreciate how lucky we in Finland have always been. We have never had to endure Communism, dictatorship, or other such monstrosities. 




It was a very nice and rather educational day-trip. The weather was absolutely perfect (not like last time when we walked to Pajstún in +32 degrees) and the company was great! On Sunday there was a hockey match, Jokerit from Finland against Slovan Bratislava. I so wanted to go see it but we were too late with the tickets. But we had lunch on a terrace and at the next table there came this group of tall, good-looking men who turned out to be Finnish ice-hockey players! The only one I recognized though, was Niklas Hagman. I wanted to go take a selfie with them but eventually decided not to...

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