Around the Castle Walk

First of all, few panoramatic pictures from the Petrzalka side of Danube to the places we are about to visit.
Vydrica and Zuckermandel
Razusovo Quay with houses for rent. Attractive living next to the river.
Our journey starts below the southern bulwark of the castle. We will go in the direction of Rybne Square, Razusovo Quay, Vydrica, Zuckermandel
These houses were built out to the bulwark in 1830´s. If they were not demolished in 1970´s, there could have been small cafés with incredible view.
Along the bulwark we come to Zigmund´s Gate. We pass it and…
…we can enjoy the view of Rybne Square from the top.
And here end the castle stairs. Once there used to be these houses, today there are none left. As we move on, we can choose what way we take so that we will end up at the beginning of Zidovska Street. We can go left, via Beblaveho Street, or right through Zamocke Schody alley.
Ok, so we sneak peek to Beblaveho…
And go through small, uncomfortable but romantic alley, as described by Tivadar Ortvay, Zamocke Schody.
We pass the former Podhradie guildhall…
…with an awesome view of synagogue, which serves as a Czechoslovak Television Studio…
…to get down to the beginning of Zidovska Street. In the left you can see the castle stairs, where we came from. This corner became a victim of communist rage in 1967. They were demolishing also the buildings that they did not have to. Simply idiots.
From the whole Zidovska Street, only this house (U Dobreho Pastiera) and Zsigrayova kúria at the opposite end (which will become a museum of Jewish culture) survived. The house on the left is being renewed completely. Today, there is Azyl Club in the basement.
One more look at Zidovska Street. Behind the houses in the left, there is Beblaveho Street. These houses will be renewed too. And now we head down, towards the river.
We pass the synagogue…
…also Rybne Square…
..around the fish market.
From the Rybne Square we are slowly getting to the Danube. We passed the brewery, and showed up from the right in the street in the background, we passed the red car and the river is right behind us. On our right side starts Razusovo Quay – the houses for rent we saw from Petrzalka. If we moved on, we would reach the Hotel Devin. When we stand at the same time in several years, above us there will be cars driving on the New Bridge.
Let´s get back to the red car a bit. The building at the back was on Jeseniova Street 6. On the left from it, used to be buildings with address Jeseniova Street 8 and 10, but in the time of taking the pictures were already demolished. Let´s take a closer look…
Through the empty area, where those houses used to be, you can see Pridavkova Street. Along the house in the left there is Kalalova Street that disappears between the yellow and grey house and falls into Vydrica Street. We slightly turn left a take several steps. We can see the western part of Jeseniovo Quay.
In front of house number 12 (8 and 10 were demolished) there is an old vehicle. If we turn left, we would go Kalalova and later end up on Vydrica.
Let´s just go to the end of Jeseniovo Quay and back. We take a look at these beautiful old houses that are already counting their days.
Here they are. From the other side.
Let´s go back toward the Rybne Square. House number 14 does not have inhabitants already.
We come back to number 12 with an old vehicle.
When we turn right slightly, we can do this picture. These are the demolished houses with Pridavkova Street behind them.
We go closer. The house on the right is on Pridavkova Street, as well as the small yellow one next to it. The street between them is Kalalova and ends up on Vydrica. So we walk Kalalova towards the small yellow house.
After only few steps we can see the remains of the two demolished houses…Let´s just continue towards that yellow house.
There it is, with a nice entrance. On the labels we can see the names of the streets. We go Pridavkova Street, in the direction from the Old Town towards the Arsenal.
Such a beautiful gate.
We are going back to the quay, to the end of Pridavkova Street. House number 34. On the left, below the tree you can see a house on Vydrica Street, which is parallel to Pridavkova. Let´s take a few steps back, so we can take a picture of more.
On the right there is the house we just saw – 34. Its neighbour, 36 was already dealt with by the regime.
We take few more steps left and get to place where parallel Pridavkova and Vydrica meet. If we stand here in 40 years with a camera, on our picture there will be a disgusting fence with billboards and a hole that leads to Subclub. So let´s just cross the tram lines and take a look into the Vydrica Street.
Right in front of us there is probably the most valuable construction in this part of town. Braunecker´s Palace, or the Chain House, with the address Vydrica 42. It was built some time around 1770 and since 1908 there was an orphanage of father Scherz. If we went through the whole Vydrica Street, except the famed prostitutes we would get to the synagogue in the end, in front of which we would get to Rybne Square. While we already were there, let´s go to the opposite direction to Zuckermandel.
The grey building is the last object of Vydrica Street - number 50. On the left there is an entrance to Arsenal yard. Between these two leads Stukova Street, which leads to the castle and the streets above Arsenal. There are also remains of the old ice plant. Wide and deep hole in the castle hill. In winter, when the Danube froze, people were bringing the large pieces of ice inside, where it kept fine till the summer.
This is the Arsenal. First building of Zuckermandel city part. It was built in 16th century as a royal armory. Later they made it into the food storage warehouse and since 1930´s a military bakery.
Eastern part of the Arsenal. Above it you can see the Belvedere Inn. It was demolished completely inconceivably in 2009. It was one of the last witnesses of Podhradie.
This is the real beginning of Zuckermandel. Restaurant Fishermans´ Guild and later on Caribic´s.
Right behind the object from the last picture, there is a building from 18th century, built in rococo style which served as Fishermans´ Guild.
Here you can see the Church of Holy Trinity.
On the other side of the road, there are small houses that will host museum exposition in the future: Kamper´s and Sunyal´s mansions. Small house on the left will be rebuilt in 2005.
After several meters one more look at where we come from. The building in the middle is the Brammer´s Mansion which will become an Archeological museum.
These were the only buildings of Zuckermandel that reached from Vydrica to tunnel below the castle hill that survived till today. The others, including those two in the left will not be that lucky.
Neither will these houses on Zizkova 30, 32 and 34. In one of those lived well-known Franz Xaver Messerschmidt – author of those weird “feeling heads.”
Let´s end this tour near the last house of this picture.
Further, at the end of Zizkova Street you can see three big apartment houses, built near the tunnel. In 1967 this part of the city disappeared.
We do not go any further, because there is nothing to see, only demolition of the western Zuckermandel and that is too much disgusting. Our journey took about 1 mile.
What happened to the places we just passed does not need any further commentary:
One question instead of the conclusion. Do you remember the path of our walk?
This article is translated from the original in Slovak, written by Jakub Durinda. You can find the original article here.