Bratislava is the political, economic, and cultural capital of Slovakia. Bratislava (Hungarian, Pozsony; German, Pressburg) is the seat of the Slovak government, the administrative center of the Západoslovenský region (kraj), and a region in its own right. The city is located on the northern bank of the Danube, 35 miles (56 km) east of Vienna.
The Czechoslovakian Communist regime, which assumed control in Slovakia in 1947, encouraged the industrialization of all of Slovakia, and many industries, such as textiles, chemicals, metallurgy, and shipping, flourished in Bratislava.
Bratislava was already a strong point on the northern perimeter of the Roman Empire in the 1st century A.D., and it played a major role in medieval Europe as one of the relatively few fords or crossings of the Danube. A part of the Hungarian kingdom after the 10th century, the city became the capital of Hungary in the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Turks invaded southern and central Hungary. During the late 18th and 19th centuries, Bratislava sank into obscurity.
With the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918, Bratislava became the center of a Slovak political and cultural revival. From 1939 to 1945 the city was the capital of an independent state, subject to German direction. After World War II, Bratislava was restored to Czech rule, and when Slovakia proclaimed independence in 1993, the city became the nation's capital.
The old sections of the city, with their churches and other buildings, some dating from the 15th century, are overshadowed by new housing developments. Several institutions of higher learning, such as the Univerzita Komenského Bratislava (Comenius University of Bratislava) and the Slovenská Akadémia Vied (Slovak Academy of Sciences), as well as a national theater and a number of museums make Bratislava a major cultural center
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