Twin City Journal Bratislava       

How does the Danube flow? This simple question would probably surprise many people who look daily at its waters washing the banks of their cities. Ten countries rightly claim the Danube to be ‘their river’. On its 2840 km long journey, the Danube flows through Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Moldavia.

Philipp Schneider is one of the most important piano tuners in Austria. A trained technician for the world famous Steinway, he is currently tuning pianos at the Vienna University of Music. His passion, though, is old pianos. You can find Philipp Schneider at his piano salon in Hainburg, and you might even find him restoring some precious and exceptional old grand piano.

“The border of our minds is firmer that any solid iron curtain.”
This year’s Lower Austrian landscape exhibition occurs at the intersection of multiple borders, taking place in three towns in the Czech Austrian border region of Horn, Raabs and Czech Telč. The title--“separate-parted-connected”--reveals the idea expressed by the exhibition.

Linz is the 2009 European Capital of Culture together with the Lithuanian capital of Vilnus. The capital of Upper Austria launched “its” year with a 3-day celebration that began in September. They were opened by “Rocket symphony” with fireworks and 800 human voices.

Wind farms work completely independently. The wind turbines turn by themselves in the direction of the wind and when they “sense” an excessively strong wind, they turn their blades in such a way that they simply avoid it. One wind turbine generates enough electrical current for an average of one thousand households.

Almost 2,000 years ago around the site where the town of Bad Deutsch Altenburg stands today, a Roman Carnuntum was established, which rapidly developed from being a Roman military stronghold to become a flourishing metropolis on the Danube. The town covered an area of approximately 10 km˛ and had about 50,000 residents, more than Vienna did at the time. When the Romans left this region in the 5th century, though, it fell into oblivion for a long time.

Experts from cities and regions looking for innovative paths to development

Five years ago events manager and musician Christoph Angerer took on what was far from an easy task: he decided to organise a quality music festival in a small east Austrian village with a population of just 1500 people. Although the village of Rohrau is small, it can boast at least three interesting attractions: Count von Harrach’s castle, a baroque church and the family home of the composers Joseph and Michael Haydn. These three facts were also behind Christoph Angerer’s decision to create a festival programme for Rohrau with noble chamber music played on original instruments, and merry performances of traditional folk dance and village dance music from the 18th century. The festival Haydn Days at Rohrau Castle commemorates its fifth anniversary this year.

The painter Günther Gelbmann lived and worked in Linz for a long time, where he studied fine art and art history at university. While searching for a bigger space for his paintings and new art studio, he rebuilt an old farmer‘s yard with stables in east Austrian Wilfleinsdorfe nearby Bruck an der Leitha, and he created attractive art spaces with a studio, his own flat, and an exhibition hall with a stage. In his Atelier 66 / Gallery he organises events where he connects fine art with dance and music performances. Dance has been a focus of his art work for a long time. Günther Gelbmann explained how it is possible to combine two artistic genres of such different dynamics.

The Prince Eugen of Savoy wasn’t only a legendary field marshal but also a passionate collector of art and investor in large buildings. Together with his Vienna palace and the Baroque castle Belvedere, he had the splendid hunting castle Hof built on the bank of the Morava River. On an area of more than 50 hectares, an artistic display is spread before your eyes, including the castle, a magnificent Baroque garden, and an idyllic farm. During the reign of the later owner, Maria Theresa, it was famous especially for great court festivities. In the golden age of the 18th and 19th centuries, the greatest Austrian castle complex outside of a city fell into oblivion. Its reconstruction was successfully completed in 2002. We learned from the director of the Hof castle, Kurt Farasin, about the details of this financially demanding cultural project as well as news of the upcoming season.

There is one place on the way between Bratislava and Vienna where sooner or later each passerby stops: the road of wineries in Kellergasse Prellenkirchen. These wineries include typical Austrian buschenchanks (wine tasting pubs with specific food options), one of which is always open and ready to serve you some wine...

Hainburg is situated amid fabulous countryside and stands between two cities – Bratislava and Vienna. With its colourful narrow streets and many interesting buildings, Hainburg is a gateway to the past, and several styles from various periods can be seen in its architecture. The heavily fortified town gates, together with the towers, are and have been a symbol of protection and security over the centuries.

Wine, countryside, history and food – all of these can be found along the MALOKARPATSKÁ VÍNNA CESTA® (The Small Carpathian Wine route®) in the area between Bratislava and Trnava. Apart from the already-mentioned large centres of the Southwest Slovakia region, Bratislava and Trnava, and the smaller towns and villages, this region is home to a number of tiny towns that are proud of their ancient self-governing status granted by royal charter – the towns of Pezinok, Modra and Svätý Jur (Saint George). They acquired this status in the 17th century thanks in particular to the production of excellent wines enjoyed by the king and nobility in Vienna and Bratislava.

Pezinok – a tiny town near Bratislava is known not only for its viniculture tradition. It was right here – in the atmosphere of Normalisation censorship during the 1970s and 80s – that artists who were banned, rejected or barely tolerated, found space for presentation of their works. It is therefore natural that art’s return – the Small Size Sculptures Biennale 2007 – found its place here.