Devín Gate, Hainburger Gate or Hungarian Gates ( sk, Devínska brána, ; german: Hainburger Pforte) is a natural gate in the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , ...

valley at the border of

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), 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 ...

and

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. It is one out of four geomorphological areas of the Devín Carpathians, part of the Little Carpathians mountain range. Passau, Devín Gate, and the

Iron Gates The Iron Gates ( ro, Porțile de Fier; sr, / or / ; Hungarian: ''Vaskapu-szoros'') is a gorge on the river Danube. It forms part of the boundary between Serbia (to the south) and Romania (north). In the broad sense it encompasses a rout ...

divide the Danube river into four distinct sections. Devín Gate has been inhabited since prehistoric times, with continuous settlement since 5000 BC. It was a strategic part of the ancient Amber Road connecting Northern Europe with the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on th ...

and during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, five

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

s have been built here, Heimenburg Castle, Rothelstein Castle, Pottenburg Castle,

Devín Castle Devín Castle ( sk, hrad Devín, links=no or , hu, Dévényi vár, german: Burg Theben) is a castle in Devín, which is a borough of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Description The site has been settled since the Neolithic Age and fortifi ...

, and Bratislava Castle. It was continually guarded since Roman times and it has served as a border of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Medite ...

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central- Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...

, the

Iron Curtain The Iron Curtain was the political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its s ...

during the Cold War and finally a border between Austria and

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

, today Slovakia. On 1 May 2004 Slovakia entered the Schengen Zone, allowing free movement of persons for the first time in history.

Name

Formerly, the gate was called in la, Porta Hungarica and in hu, Dévényi kapu.

Location and description

In a wider sense it begins below Bratislava Castle (in which case the gate is 11.5 km long and 2 to 7 km wide) and in a narrower sense it begins below

. It ends near

Hundsheimer Berg Hundsheimer Berg is a hill located in the Hundsheimer Berge hill range in Lower Austria, Austria close to the border with Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a la ...

, the highest peak of the Austrian Carpathians at 480 meters AMSL, in Austria on the right bank of the Danube. To the east, it borders another natural gate, the Lamač Gate. Geologically, Devín Gate was created during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the '' Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed ...

epoch. A large part of its core consists of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies und ...

massifs from the Carboniferous period. It also features

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms wh ...

s and dolomites from the

Cenozoic The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configu ...

era.

Neogene The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...

period sediments include conglomerates,

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classif ...

s and others. On the Upper Danube, comprising the section between the springs where the river begins and Devín Gate upstream of Bratislava, the extension of the morphological floodplain is smaller as compared to the rest of the river.

History

Neolithic farmers settled in the area approximately 5000 - 3500 BC, establishing continuous human settlement which lasts until present time.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Devin Gate Landforms of Slovakia Geography of Bratislava Danube

Name

Location and description

History

See also

References