You should start at the Hviezdoslavovo námestie square with a wonderful view of the slender silhouette of Michalská veža tower with its typical onion-shaped roof. The beginning of Michalská street runs along the old stone bridge of St.Michael over the former water moat. It was built in the first half of the 18th century and replaced the original wooden drawbridge. On the left side of the bridge the passers-by get a nice view of the rest of the former town moat. Left from the Michalská veža tower the parts of the double town walls have been preserved. The upper section of Michalská ulica passes through the preserved remains of barbican, which protected the entry into the inner town from the 15th century. The curve of the street was intentional as it prevented the direct artillery attacks on the actual Michalská brána gate.

Before passing under the Michalská brána gate do not forget to look at the narrow house on its right side. It is house with the narrowest facade in the city (1,6m), which documents the skills of Bratislava`s medieval builders when they had to come on terms with the limited space inside the town walls. The width of this extremely narrow hose corresponds to that of the moat and its peripheral walls coincide with those of fortifications.

The Michalská veža tower constitutes one of the symbols of the city. It is the only one preserved out of four providing for the entry into the fortified medieval town. It provided for the passage into the town from the Záhorie or Moravian regions. It the night it was closed. Its name derives from the village that existed in early Middle. Ages beyond the gate and around the long before demolished church of St. Michael. The tower has seven floors now. One cen identify several architectural styles from Gothic to Baroque. The lowest part is the passage with a brick cross vault and five floors of a massive four sided tower. The part from the second floor down to the ground is the oldest. It originated as a Gothic fortified gate sometime in the first half of the 14th century. The rest of the prism with another three floors was added in the first third of the 16th century when Turkish attacks were expected and the city was more thoroughly fortified.

Under the tower is the zero kilometre, from which the distances of the individual world panoramic view from the top of the tower is superb. The view of the near Zámočnícka and Baštová streets deserves special attention. These two streets originated as narrow castle lanes in the immediate vicinity of the town walls. On the left there is Zámočnícka ulica street. Its name (Smith`s street) reveals that there were workshops of craftsmen here in the past. The fire  of 1590 destroyed its original Gothic buildings. On the right of the tower is Baštová ulica street. Its name derives from the bastions, which used to be part of the defensive system north of the street. The headsman used to live in this street and that is why the name of the street before 1879 was Katova or Headsman`s street. Standing at the Michalská tower one gets a view of the whole of Michalská ulica street, which is one of the oldest in the city. Its lower part existed as early as the Romanesque period of Pressburg. Later it was widened by the addition of more houses along the road used by merchants on their way from the north to Bratislava`s ford over the Danube. The builders of the inner town walls set its present lenght sometime in the 14th century. The modern urban fabric of Michalská street is varied in styles with prevailing preserved or restored Renaissance houses.

Let us stop first at Segner`s curia (house No. 7) in the western row of houses, which attracts attention which its two two-storied oriels. It is also the house where Johann Andreas Segner (1704-1777), a scientist of European rank was born.


Jeszenák Palace (house No. 3), built in 1730 as a city palace, is the second oldest of Bratislava. Only Esterh8yz`s palace in Kapitulská street is older. The royal counsellor Pavol Jeszenák built it in the 17th century.

A comparatively modest building with simple Neo Classical facade standing on the eastern side of Michalská street hides a pleasant surprise: the wonderful Gothic interior  of the Chapel of St. Catharine. The charm of the remote past breathes from the white walls with tender arches. The chapel is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Bratislava.

The most magnificient building of Michalská street is at its lower end. It is the Palace of Hungarian Royal Court Chamber, tody the University Library. In its central hall the lower council of the Hungarian Parliament formed by the county deputies, free royal boroughs, and chapters, had its sessions in the years 1802-1848. The building was adapted to the needs of the University Library, its present purpose, in the years 1951-1953.

The Ventúrska ulica street, continuing Michalská, bears the name of the family Ventura from Italy. Ventúrska street is connected with Michalská by a short tapered section caused by close proximity of the facing houses. One of the buildings forming this bottle neck is the Palace of Leopold de Pauli (house No. 13). It was build in the years 1776-1777 for the main administrator of the royal property on the former royal plot. Gothic houses probably occupied the side before. The chamber architect F. K. Römisch, who probably followed the design of Hillebrandt, built it.  De Pauli`s city palace is a nice sample of the new trend in the architecture of Pressburg`s city palaces applied in the last quarter of the 18th century. This palace has got all that is absent in other palaces. In its interior there is a garden with a graceful Rococo music pavilion. Some sources assert that in 1820 Franz Liszt gave a concert there. The corner of Ventúrska and Prešoprská streets is occupied by Zichy Palace (house No. 11) with its smart and strictly Neo Classical facade. Its builder was F. Feline. It was build on the site of three older medieval houses as a four-wing building with inner gallery-rimmed courtyard. Count Franz Zichy had it built in 1775. The palace was restored for the purpose of ceremonies and feasts in the 1980`s.

Pálffy Palace (hosue No.10) which was reconstructed in 1747 stands on the corner of Ventúrska and Zelená streets. The tablet on the facade of Pálffy`s palace facing Ventúrska street announces that it was presumably the venue of the concert of the then six year child known by the whole world as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). In two venerable looking houses opposite university education in Pressburg started more than 500 years ago. It includes the thirty-year lasting activity of the first humanistic university in Hungary known as the Universitas Istropolitana.

The Ventúrska street slightly widens in its lower part. The narrow triangle is very probably the remnant of an old market place from the beginning of the medieval settlement below the castle. Its western part is occupied by Erdödy`s palace (house No. 1). The former private seat of the state judge Count Juraj Erdödy is the last palace build in Pressburg from the second generation of the city palaces. The local architect Matej Walch finished it in 1770. Originally there were two floors and in the first half of the 20th century a third floor was built on top of them.