Journal

Functionalist Hotel Devín**** was initially not liked by many. The building without any decoration among the picturesque houses along the Danube was an eyesore.

Imagine the lower town between the wars. In the morning, moms would send their children with a jug to get milk, and dads would send the same kids with the same jug to the City Brewery in the evening to get a beer. A symphony from the Music School in the Benyovský Palace echoed along the embankment. The elite of Bratislava used to go swimming in the wooden baths that stood on the Danube near today’s Hotel Devín****. The spa, surrounded by wooden cabins, sheltered visitors, among whom naked ladies were said to be sunbathing. Maybe it was true, maybe not, in any case, a clever marketing trick lured the curious to visit. People bought caught fish and fresh vegetables at the Fish Market.

Among one of the first buildings, a timeless functionalist hotel was built in this style in 1952-1954, which Mr. Emil Belluš, at the head of a team of architects, brought to perfection. He reworked the exterior and interior in detail so that all parts of the building were used and connected to each other through details. Luxurious wooden tiles in the interior, mirrors that graphically reflect the space and high ceilings. Nowadays, no investor would approve such a generous project with a slow return. The facade of the building is not insulated, it is dominated by our Slovak travertine from Spiš. When the project was finished, Belluš handed it over to the Directorate of Hospitality Facilities as a gift to the institute. The building is a national cultural heritage and is a gallery of works of art by leading Slovak visual artists. Until 1996, Hotel Devín**** was managed by the state-owned company Interhotels, only then it came into private hands, which luckily modified the premises very sensitively.

Because you are coming back here, he addresses you by name and asks how you are. You get the feeling that many stories have already taken place in this place. You live in the same room as the Dalai Lama, Elizabeth Taylor, or Alexander Dubček. You know that the presidential elections were celebrated here and films were filmed, including the series „Dunaj, at your service“. And the hotel still stands and is still a hotel.