Town
Štúrovo is located in the southernmost corner of Slovakia; the Danube must descend another 110 m until it reaches the sea.
On the opposite bank of the Danube lies Esztergom (Gran), where the first Hungarian king was crowned; the basilica, visible from everywhere, is a famous landmark.
Štúrovo is a very popular health resort, thanks to its thermal springs.
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| Former Hotel Helvetia | View of the Danube and Kováčovské kopce | A bird’s-eye view of the Vadas thermal baths |
In the vicinity lie the hilly reserves Kováčovské kopce (Kovácspataki hegyek) and Vŕšok (Hegyfarok), which are of volcanic origin. On the Hungarian side are the foothills of the Pilis range.
The town has about 13’000 inhabitants; Hungarian is the mother tongue of the majority. But nearly all inhabitants speak Slovak as well as Hungarian (and mostly simultaneously).
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| Railway station | St. Emmerich’s church | Memorial for the victims
of the two World Wars |
Bridge History
Centuries ago the Danube river near Parkan was already an important ford.
During the Turkish rule a number of floating bridges were built and destroyed.
In the 18th century – on the initiative of archbishop Ferenc Barkóczy – a flying bridge was installed. This was basically a ferry that took 6-8 minutes to reach the opposite bank.
In 1842 archbishop Sándor Rudnay had the ferry replaced by a floating bridge, which was destroyed in 1848. Archbishop János Scitovszky had the bridge renewed in 1851.
Towards the end of the 19th century it was no longer sufficient. To encourage the construction of a new bridge, archbishop Kolos Vaszary declared that “in the public interest” the bridge was to be forever toll-free.
The Budapest construction firm Szaléz Catrhy erected the Mária Valéria bridge in less than two years; on September 28, 1895, it was opened to traffic.
On July 22, 1919 the bridge was destroyed by a detonation at its first pier. It is not known whether that was an accident or done purposely by Czechoslovakian soldiers to protect the bridge against the Hungarian People’s Commissars’ Republic, or even perpetrated by that Republic’s army in retreat.
The bridge was renovated in 1922 and completely reconstructed in 1926, when the no longer appropriate wooden construction of the roadbed was replaced by reinforced concrete and the surface tarred.
Christmas 1944 the German troops blew up the bridge’s three middle arches. Since October 11, 2001, the Mária Valéria bridge has been whole again, serving traffic between Štúrovo and Esztergom, across the border between Slovakia and Hungary, which on May 1st, 2004 has become an intra-EU border.
Since midnight of December 20, 2007 it is possible to cross the bridge without showing the passport – Slovakia and Hungary a part of the Schengen treaty.
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