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give the quarter a new scale and expression, and furthermore
from the perspective of historical site significance they are of
little value and not studied by preservationists.” (The institute’s
director at the time was Ing. arch. Ján Hraško.) 14
Regarding preservation studies, the statement goes on
to identify just two historical buildings: the renovated “late
Renaissance” Water Barracks and the dilapidated “neoclassical
building” of the former horse railway terminus close to the
Hotel Carlton Savoy. Dedeček had the latter documented (as
part of the SNG reconstruction and addition project), but it was
taken down because the ceilings’ structural integrity was unsound.
The residential buildings on Ulica Paulínyho-Tótha were
at the time considered “unworthy of preservationist study”, to be
“purged” for the sake of both the Water Barracks and Harminc’s
addition and interconnection of three of Bratislava’s hotels, the
Carlton, the Savoy and the National, into a single modern hotel
(project 1927, realization 1928). With this intervention, Harminc
fundamentally changed and shifted the scale of the Hviezdoslavo
námestie square. Thus it was not just Professor Belluš’ Hotel
Devín, but also his generational predecessor’s triple hotel Carlton
Savoy ( National ) that had greatly outdone the surrounding
buildings in size and scale – indeed, by the 1930s a new urban
and architectural dimension had taken hold on the modernized
riverfront, which around 1950 Belluš affirmed and elaborated
with his Hotel Devín. Bratislava’s riverbank, touching its historical
core, had taken on new significance as a city promenade,
bringing the river’s presence right to Hviezdoslavovo námestie.
This modernized riverfront took on a new line, height and volume
of buildings, but also a new urban, social and recreational meaning
for its citizens. It was another step toward the city’s later
expansion to the other bank of the river, into Petržalka.
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