Presidential Palace
The Presidential Palace is the location of the annual open house (Den Otvorenych Dveri), where you can walk into the building and meet the President. However, the building is off limits to the public all other days of the year. It's home to regular ceremonies with foreign officials, which involve periodic changing of the guards, brass bands, ceremonial changing of flags, as well as other pomp and circumstance. Gardens behind the Presidential Palace are well worth a visit when you feel like walking through a park.
Also known as Grassalkovic Palace, named for its former owner. During communist times, it was known as Ustredny dom pionierov a mladeze Klementa Gottwalda (Main house of Pioneers and Youth of Klement Gottwald).
An urban legend about the Presidential Palace that is actually true is that when Rudolf Schuster was president, he had the building so lit up at Christmas time that, according to a Bratislavske Novinny article from 1999 a Swiss pilot flying from the High Tatras was running out of gas and mistook the Presidential Palace for landing lights at the Bratislava Airport. He landed his Cessna in the picturesque garden behind the Presidential Palace.
The Presidential Palace is located at Hodzovo Namestie (Hodzovo Square), an important public transportation interchange in Bratislava and a convenient place to leave the bus and walk two minutes to the historical center.
