Remaining section of Bratislava's city wall

The first fortification of the city of Bratislava probably took place after the Tatar invasion, in the second half of the 13th century (it became a free royal city in 1291). In the middle third of the 14th century, it already had all four city gates, but only the northern Michael Gate has survived to this day (it has been rebuilt and modernized several times. According to other sources, only the northern St. Michael Gate, the eastern St. Lawrence Gate and the western Vödrici Gate were still standing at that time, while the southern Fisherman's Gate was built at the beginning of the 15th century. ; The final medieval construction of the city wall of Bratislava took place during the reign of Sigismund, in the first decades of the 15th century (Sigmund also paid a lot of attention to Bratislava: the city also received the right to mint coins and use coats of arms from him). The total enclosed area was almost 22 hectares, which later proved to be extremely limited; together with the continuously developing suburbs, almost 100 hectares were surrounded by another wall at the beginning of the 17th century. ; After the Turkish threat passed, the city walls became barriers to the development of the city. Maria Theresa finally He ordered their demolition in 1775. ; Only the western section of the Sigismund-era fortifications survived, not by chance, as it stands on the eastern edge of the castle hill, meaning the city could not expand in this direction. The wall has a double system, consisting of a lower outer and a higher (approximately 8 meters) inner stone wall, with a ditch between the two (of course, there was also an outer ditch system, of which no trace remains). The wall is divided by various bastions with a semicircular layout: on the outer wall, on the inner wall, and closing the two stone walls. A part of the former outer wooden battlement was reconstructed on the inner wall of the north-south city wall north of St. Martin's Cathedral, which remained (and of course was partially reconstructed, i.e. rebuilt).