The Port of Bratislava () is a major

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...

on 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 ...

and — in a wider sense — on the Rhine-Main-Danube waterway, located in

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. ...

, the capital 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 is a universal

inland port An inland port is a port on an inland waterway, such as a river, lake, or canal, which may or may not be connected to the sea. The term "inland port" is also used to refer to a dry port. Examples The United States Army Corps of Engineers publ ...

consisting of two parts, a cargo port and a passenger port. The former is a key facility for Slovakia's economy as the largest of three international ports in Slovakia, the others being in

Komárno Komárno (, , ), colloquially also called ''Révkomárom'', ''Öregkomárom'', ''Észak-Komárom'' in Hungarian language, Hungarian, is a town in Slovakia at the confluence of the Danube and the Váh rivers. Historically it was formed by the "old ...

and

Štúrovo Štúrovo (, ) is the southernmost town of Slovakia, situated on the river Danube not far from the mouth of the Hron. Connected by the Mária Valéria Bridge it forms a cross-border urban area with the city of Esztergom in Hungary. In 2023 the tow ...

. The port lies at the strategic intersection of the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal with the Baltic-Adriatic Corridor, part of the

Trans-European Transport Networks The Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) is a planned network of roads, railways, airports and water infrastructure in the European Union. The TEN-T network is part of a wider system of Trans-European Networks (TENs), including a telecommun ...

, and it is located near two major ports: Port of Vienna and Port of

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. The

port authority A port authority (less commonly a port district) is a governmental or quasi-governmental public authority for a special-purpose district usually formed by a legislative body (or bodies) to operate ports and other transportation infrastructure. ...

for the Port of Bratislava is the company ''Verejné prístavy, a.s. (Public ports, jsc.)'' (VP). The port is connected to

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...

and a

pipeline transport A pipeline is a system of Pipe (fluid conveyance), pipes for long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas, typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countries ...

system to the

Slovnaft Slovnaft is an oil refining company in Slovakia. The company, located in Bratislava, is a subsidiary of MOL Group. History Slovnaft is the successor of the Apollo company. Apollo was established in 1895 in Bratislava. Its refinery was bombar ...

refinery. Land underneath the cargo port is owned by the state company ''Verejné prístavy, a.s.'', all buildings and objects are owned by ''Slovenská Plavba a Prístavy, a.s.''. The cargo port lies at the left riverbank of the Danube, from

river kilometer A river mile is a measure of distance in miles along a river from its river mouth, mouth. River mile numbers begin at zero and increase further upstream. The corresponding metric unit using kilometre, kilometers is the river kilometer. They are an ...

1 867,290 until 1862,000. Both adjacent riverbanks belong to the Port of Bratislava.

History

In the last decade of the 19th century the Danube riverbank adjacent to the city center of Bratislava (called Pressburg or Pozsony at that time) underwent major changes. In 1890, a new steel bridge called Franz Joseph Brücke (today the Old bridge of Bratislava) was opened and shortly afterwards the construction of the nearby port began. The area along the riverbank from today's

Slovak National Museum The Slovak National Museum () is the most important institution focusing on scientific research and cultural education in the field of museology in Slovakia. Its beginnings "are connected with the endeavour of the Slovak nation for national emanc ...

headquarters until the today's Apollo bridge was converted to accommodate the mooring of up to 250 cargo ships. These activities were driven mainly by the commercial interests of transport companies on the Danube and the state of

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

financially participated only minimally. The current port area was developed from 1897 with the start of construction on the north pool of the Winter harbor and the establishment and gradual extension of the railway network. It was constructed in the vicinity of the oldest industrial quarter in the city near Továrenská Street. The construction of the south pool started in 1907. The Winter harbour served originally only for the wintering of ships (the water never freezes here) without the possibility to load/unload cargo. After the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, Czechoslovak transport office was created in 1919 which was the predecessor of the port operator, founded in June 1922 as the Czechoslovak Danube nautical stock company. The complex was finished during the times of the

First Czechoslovak Republic The First Czechoslovak Republic, often colloquially referred to as the First Republic, was the first Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak state that existed from 1918 to 1938, a union of ethnic Czechs and Slovaks. The country was commonly called Czechosl ...

and in the 1930s the port was among the best equipped European river establishments. In 1922, the port operator owned 5 steam tugboats and 44 barges. In 1938 the company owned altogether 167 ships of various function. Today, the fleet counts 221 ships and boats. Today, numerous historical buildings, machines and ships still remain in the Port of Bratislava including the Warehouse Nr. 14, Warehouse Nr. 17, Warehouse Nr. 7, the Old Boatmen's House and a pumping station () - the last three being protected as national cultural monuments. In 2011, the ship Šturec, the last remaining Slovak river motor tugboat was declared as culturally protected. Šturec (formerly Štúr) was built in the Komárno shipyard in 1937 and it was christened by Prime minister

Milan Hodža Milan Hodža (1 February 1878 – 27 June 1944) was a Slovak politician and journalist, serving from 1935 to 1938 as the prime minister of Czechoslovakia. As a proponent of regional integration, he was known for his attempts to establish a demo ...

and the first Slovak maritime ship captain Július Thurzo. It is the only surviving ship from the trio of sister ships Šturec, Vajanský a Moyzes and she survived a sinking when being hit by a bomb during the Allied carpet bombing of the Apollo refinery in 1944. There are plans to turn the ship into a nautical museum. In the future, the City of Bratislava plans to extend the riverbank promenade to include also the picturesque old Winter harbour, and in the long-term all industrial activity should be moved to areas on the other side of the Harbour bridge. These plans are opposed by the port operator ''Slovenská Plavba a Prístavy, a.s.'' (SPaP) which obstructs the declaration of various buildings and structures as cultural monuments and plans to strengthen its operations and does not publicly speak about moving from the Winter harbour.

Passenger port

Port for passengers is located directly in the Bratislava city center between the New bridge and Old bridge at Fajnorovo nábrežie Street No. 2. It consists of a small building and 8 loading platforms. Besides providing port-related services the building features also a few shops, restaurant and a travel agency office. The port is situated on the Danube free flow between river kilometer 1870,00 and 1867,00. The reconstruction of the passenger port building is in planning for several years but the process was slowed down by local activists as well as the cultural monuments protection office of the municipal government. The height of the proposed reconstruction was lowered several times from the original 5 floors to 3 by the owner and investor Slovenská plavba a prístavy - lodná osobná doprava, a.s. The project aims to expand the building as well as green areas in the vicinity without reducing the size of the adjacent surface parking lot and while expanding the riverbank promenade behind the building. As of 2016 the construction has not started.

Cargo port

The cargo port consists of the following parts: * Winter harbor () - the original port from 1897 * Pálenisko - new port built in 1975–1983 * Shipyard () - shipyard for ship repairs

References

* http://www.dobrodruh.sk/historia/quo-vadis-zimny-pristav-v-bratislave (Slovak)

External links

A map of the cargo port (in Slovak)

A map of passenger port platforms in Bratislava

{{coord, 48, 07, 50, N, 17, 08, 42, E, region:SK-BL_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Buildings and structures in Bratislava Transport in Bratislava Ports and harbours in Europe

History

Passenger port

Cargo port

See also

References

External links