If we go back along the main Line, we arrive in about two hours, after crossing the Rivers Gran, Neutra and Vag, at Pozsony, delightfully situated at the foot of the Little Carpathians, and quite near to the frontier. Lying right on the bank of the Danube, Pozsony forms, so-to-speak, the entrance gate to Hungary.

We perceive in the distance, on the summit of a hill, the imposing ruins of s Castle, once the Royal residence, where in 1741 the Hungarian peoples hailed Queen Maria Theresa with the famous cry "Moriamur pro rege nostro"; the Castle was destroyed by fire in 1811, but its adjoining buildings still serve as barracks for a part of the garrison. Beneath the Castle Hill, stretches the town, some parts of which still preserve their mediaeval character; here we see several ancient buildings of real beauty, the Town-hall, the Franciscan and Clarissa Churches, and St. Martins Cathedral with Raphael Donners famous statue of St. Martin in Hungarian costume: in the newer parts are well-planned streets, fine buildings, and beautiful monuments; the theatre, the superb monument of Maria Theresa by John Fadrusz the Ganymede fountain, the monument of Hummel by Tilgner etc., modern shops, and numerous high schools, to which the new University will soon be added, show Pozsony to be a very developed commercial and industrial centre.

Finally, numerous industrial establishments justify its title of the second town in Hungary. Until 1848 Pozsony was of great importance as the Coronation town of the Habsburg Kings, and seat of the Diet; it now plays a considerable part as cultural and commercial centre of West Hungary, and presents with its 78,000 inhabitants, the appearance of a large Capital.

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Adapted from Illustrated Description of Hungary and its Capital