The city and its people

The publication *People and the City* was published in 2023 to accompany the exhibition of the same name at the Bratislava City Museum, which ran from 23 September 2022 to 31 July 2023 at the Apponyi Palace. The exhibition presented the city as an urban and living space for its inhabitants over seven centuries, from the granting of its founding charter to the 1990s.

The publication contains interpretative texts by several authors on the themes presented in the exhibition. Peter Pišút systematically charts the changes brought about by the Danube – and particularly its regulation – to the city’s spatial expansion.

Žofia Lysá examines the city’s development from a Romanesque settlement at the foot of the castle to a Gothic city in the 13th century, the formation of its legal status, the granting of privileges by Hungarian kings, elections to the city council, and key figures of the medieval city.

Ingrid Kušniráková outlines the basic features of the town’s construction and architectural development, as well as the lives of its inhabitants during the town’s golden age in the Theresian period.

Elena Kurincová’s contribution examines the town’s development from the mid-19th century to the end of the Second World War. This was a period in which a succession of regimes and two world wars left their mark on the lives of the town’s inhabitants.

The concluding contribution by Elena Kurincová and Petra Hanáková highlights the fundamental changes in the town’s social and spatial development, as well as in the lifestyle of its inhabitants, during the socialist era.

In addition to an introductory essay on the city’s seven-hundred-year history and the evolution of its names, the publication is supplemented by a wealth of maps and illustrations from the collections of the Bratislava City Council (MMB) and the Bratislava City Archives (AMB).

#history #Bratislava #bourgeoisie #urban privileges