Námestie Hraničiarov Square (source: Petržalka)
While already 35 years have lapsed since the fall of the totalitarian, communist regime, there are still places that honour not its victims but perpetrators. One is Námestie Hraničiarov (Square of the Border Guard) in Bratislava’s Petržalka, named after the troops that killed people at the border attempting to flee the country. On the occasion of this year’s anniversary at least a small correction will be made. On Saturday, November 16, a memorial plaque dedicated to the victims of the Border Guard will be installed in the park in the centre of Námestie Hraničiarov.
“This memorial is a reminder of a sad period in our history when basic human rights were suppressed and people were punished and killed for violating them,” said Martin Kleibl, project manager of the Cultural Facilities of Petržalka (KZP). “Let this pillar be a warning for future generations so that such events will never happen again.”
The memorial plaque is to commemorate the creation, existence, and especially the victims of the Iron Curtain who perished on the Slovak-Austrian border near Petržalka. They died in the territories of Petržalka, Kopčany and Jarovce, all boroughs of Bratislava today.
Námestie Hraničiarov Square with its park was handed over to the residents on the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Law on the Protection of State Borders, i.e. on July 11, 1981, said Ľubomír Morbacher, historian of the Institute of Memory of the Nation (ÚPN), when explaining the historical context.
The first part of this law states, among other things: “The protection of the national borders is the duty of every citizen.”
The remnant of the inscription, which was placed on the wall of the substation in 1985, can still be read after almost 50 years.
The square was the first one of the Petržalka housing estate. In 1973, namely on April 3, the foundation stone of the “Petržalka urban sector” was ceremoniously laid there. At that time, the stone was practically set in a green meadow, until at the end of the 1970s, prefabricated buildings, paneláky in Slovak, were constructed around it.
The square was used for various representational purposes, but according to the municipality, it also recalls a dark phase of Petržalka’s history. The Iron Curtain border stretched right alongside it. People yearning for freedom were often detained, injured and even killed when trying to cross the Iron Curtain. After the fall of the communist regime in 1989, the Iron Curtain was removed, but to this day the square retains its name after the border guards.
In 2024, the park in the square’s centre was officially named Victims of the Border Guards Park.
The commemorative event on November 16 is part of the international Festival of Freedom throughout Bratislava, taking place on the 35th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution.
