Visiting the 1000 year old Devin Castle in Bratislava, Slovakia

iPhone Photography

Sep 24

A little quiz: Name the two European capital cities with the smallest geographic proximity.

The answer is Vienna, Austria, and Bratislava, Slovakia. Those two cities are called twin cities because you can travel from one to the other within one hour by boat, car, train and even by plane.

A few days ago, on the way home, I took a detour in Bratislava to see the famous Devin Castle. It's located right near the Austrian border on the Slovak side. The colossal castle sits on top of a small hill and is over 1000 years old. It survived many decades until it was blown up by Napoleon's army in 1809.

Allegedly, the castle is the origin of the Slavic/Moravian population.

The most famous landmark of this castle is the small watchtower. Built to oversee the two rivers Danube and Morava, it was built on top of a small ledge.

As you can walk around the castle hill, you'll discover a beautiful photo spot. You'll see the small watchtower through a small gap between the trees.

Of course, you can visit the entire castle. Unfortunately, when I was there in 2014, half of the enormous castle was closed due to reconstruction. But still, you'll enjoy a stunning view over the two rivers towards Vienna and Bratislava. A great photo spot for sunset photos!

And inside the castle, you may find grazing goats everywhere. Once you're done inside the castle, enjoy a stroll along the rivers, or, if you're more an adventurous person, you may want to have a close look at Google maps to find a famous lost place nearby.

Meanwhile, I've been to the castle a few times. I took the photos in this post with different iPhone models ranging from the iPhone 5s to iPhone 6s.

Don't forget to checkout the iPhone photography page where I list all the recommended iPhone camera apps, iPhone photo editing apps, and all the other iPhone photo stuff I currently use for my travel photography.