The Bratislava bridgehead is found in the western part of

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

. It has an area of . It is situated on the

Little Hungarian Plain The Little Hungarian Plain or Little Alföld ( Hungarian: ''Kisalföld'' , Slovak: ''Malá dunajská kotlina'', German: ''Kleine Ungarische Tiefebene'') is a plain (tectonic basin) of approximately 8,000 km² in northwestern Hungary, sout ...

, on the left bank of the river

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

. Administratively, it belongs to the district

Bratislava V Bratislava V (; ) is an okres (district) of Bratislava in the Bratislava Region of Slovakia. It covers southern areas of Bratislava, including the boroughs of Petržalka, Jarovce, Rusovce and Čunovo. It is bordered by the Danube river to the n ...

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

, and has 111,135 inhabitants.

History

As a result of the

Treaty of Trianon The Treaty of Trianon (; ; ; ), often referred to in Hungary as the Peace Dictate of Trianon or Dictate of Trianon, was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace Conference. It was signed on the one side by Hungary ...

- the peace treaty by

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

that ended its role in

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

- a bridgehead was created for

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

on the right bank of river Danube at Bratislava, mainly for defensive purposes. At this time

Petržalka Petržalka (; ; ) is the largest borough of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Situated on the right bank of the river Danube, the area shares a land border with Austria, and is home to around 100,000 people. Names and etymology The German name ...

was transferred to the newly founded country. In October 1938, as part of the

Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement was reached in Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Third Republic, French Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy. The agreement provided for the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–194 ...

and

Devín Devín (, , ) is a borough of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, located in the Bratislava IV district. Originally a separate village at the confluence of the Danube and Morava rivers, Devín maintained its rural character and today, it is on ...

were transferred to

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

for strategic purposes. At the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, ceasefire agreements mainly restored the pre-war boundaries, except

Carpathian Ruthenia Transcarpathia (, ) is a historical region on the border between Central and Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast. From the Hungarian Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin, conquest of the Carpathian Basin ...

, which became part of

Soviet Ukraine The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. Under the Soviet one-party m ...

as per the Moscow Agreement. A camp for Hungarians and Germans interned for

war crime A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...

s was located in Petržalka. Slovakia borders1947

It was an idea of the

delegation at the Paris Peace Conference that they would need an extended defensive territory at the Bratislava bridgehead. They sought Dunacsún (

Čunovo Čunovo (, , ) is a small part of Bratislava, Slovakia, in the southern area near the Hungary, Hungarian border. It is located close to the Gabčíkovo - Nagymaros Dams. History Čunovo was first mentioned as a village in 1232 under the name ''C ...

), Horvátjárfalu ( Jarovce), Oroszvár (

Rusovce Rusovce (, ) is a borough in southern Bratislava on the right bank of the Danube river, close to the Austrian border. History In the 1st century, there was a Roman settlement named Gerulata in today's Rusovce area. The first preserved writte ...

), Rajka and Bezenye. The first three were transferred, creating a territory of 62 km². During the 1970s, a

microdistrict A microdistrict or microraion is a residential complex—a primary structural element of the residential area construction in the Soviet Union and in some post-Soviet and former socialist states. Residential districts in most of the cities a ...

was built at Petržalka, with a population of 100,000 inhabitants. Today; its four villages are a part of the

district. Between 1977 and 1992, the Gabčíkovo–Nagymaros Dams was built there. The bridgehead makes the extraction of water to

possible.

References

{{coord, 48, 4, 42, N, 17, 7, 32, E, type:city_region:SK, display=title Historical geography of Slovakia History of Bratislava Geography of Bratislava