MY LATEST TRIP: MOMENTS, TASTES, SCENES, ARCHITECTURE, PEOPLE AND MORE... #5

Does Devin mean something to you? Well, it does a lot to Slovaks. Their history is written on a castle called Devin, one of the three oldest castles in the country. Dating back to the year 864 AD, it's situated on a precipitous rock overlooking the merging of the Danube and Morava rivers. In 1809, it was almost completely destroyed by Napoleon's troops. Consequently, the castle itself is nowadays not much more than a ruin, but the location is particularly beautiful. 

In my modest opinion, the  most photogenic part of the castle was the tiny watchtower, seemingly not much bigger than a chess piece, known now as the Maiden Tower. 

I was informed that the Tower was used as a look-out for guards watching for people trying to escape the communist east, across the river into Austria. 

This area of Slovakia has had a turbulent past, and beyond the perimeter of the castle, there is  a memorial to over 500 Slovakians who tried to escape during the Cold War and were dead shot by the border guards on the river banks. The pock-marked symbolic gate with its twisted metal iron gate stands out against the backdrop of the rivers, remembering those who went there hoping to make it across the river.

A few years ago, Queen Elizabeth II went on an official visit to Slovakia and unveiled a sculpture next to the Castle. The huge iron artwork represents the Iron Curtain and includes quotations from Sir Winston Chuchill. It's interesting to see that Slovakia seems to be taking a kind of step forward in acknowledging its Cold War history more openly and defininitely added a special reason to revisit it.

I spent the whole afternoon there, taking lots of photos... not to the complex but to what caught my eyes during my walk through the rustic village of Devin - I happened to watch something special that deserves an individual post -, the river banks on which fishermen, keeping a sleepy vigil over much-used rods, seemed to be a common sight even on weekdays. I laid down in the grass, watching the Danube from Austria and Slovakia joining together and felt like I was a queen of that castle (I knew it was a ruin. Imagination, my friends!) 
It was surprising how quiet it was everywhere. Apart from me, I saw a few groups and by the time I left, I was the only one on the bus.

As I was walking along a bit complicated street network, I was brought into the farthest part of the village, where I stepped into an atelier of an art-oriented family: father and son were sculptors, while the mother was devoted to crafts. Outside, a small square was dotted with several interesting benches, all created by the male members of the family.

Let your imagination run freely and wild, imagine how the citizens lived under the regime while viewing the images of the castle, the rivers and their quiet banks, the village and much more...

 Enjoy!

~~ Thanks for stopping by ~~