The Družba fountain has become an attraction for Bratislavans since its relaunch in June. (source: SME - Marko Erd)
Cooling yourself off in the Družba fountain on Námestie Slobody (Freedom Square) in Bratislava’s Old Town, which the capital city reopened at the end of June after a comprehensive refurbishment, will soon become legal. Councillors in the capital's Old Town borough on September 26 approved a revision to the respective regulation that will become effective on October 13.
This means that the fountain gets an exception from the ban on putting any part of your body apart from your hands into a fountain anywhere in the Old Town. However, actual bathing in the popular fountain remains forbidden, as it does in all other Old Town fountains.
After its launch in early summer, the fountain became a big attraction for citizens of and visitors to Bratislava, while children quickly adopted it as a new place to play. But the Regional Office of Public Health in Bratislava warned that anyone dousing themselves in or cooling themselves with water from the Družba fountain was doing so at their own risk. Hygienists justified this advice by pointing to the fact that the fountain does not meet the same hygienic requirements that apply to swimming pools, and was approved only for decorative and visual purposes.
The Old Town Council responded that, following its refurbishment, the facility should be a so-called 'contact fountain', which people can enter, refresh themselves in, and use to cool down during hot days – but not bathe in. The fountain is also intended to serve as a children’s water playground, which is why, unlike other fountains, the water in the fountain is hygienic and chemically treated in a similar way to the water in swimming pools.
