Mezei István: Urban development in Slovakia (Pécs-Somorja, 2010)

5. Regional organization in Slovakia

Bratislava as a macro regional centre

and that of the iron curtain and since the country rid itself of the Soviet sphere of interest, the region has started its own course of development. Bratislava having become a capital city of an independent country was something that could widen the range of its opportunities dramatically. Apart from the above-mentioned changes in its geopolitical situation, its administrative role, sharply increasing economic weight and the importance of education and research concentrated there, all contribute to Bratislava stepping onto a path leading to growth.

Concerning transportation, one of the most important aspects of our age, the city is also in an outstanding situation. It is located at the crossing point of several important routes. Both the Prague-Bratislava- Budapest and the Cracow-Žilina-Bratislava-Vienna routes contribute to its significance. However, if we set up a rank regarding the amount of traffic, then Brno, Prague and Vienna will be placed first before all the other, more remote centres. As a result of the former conflicts of cold war, there is still no motorway to Vienna, but there is a regular hydrofoil service. Besides, direct tram service between the two cities, which was first launched in 1914, is under construction.

The possibilities of the new capital of the new country drew the attention of regionalists very soon. The Hungarian György Enyedi and the Polish Grzegorz Gorzelak first toyed with the idea of a potential large Central European region involving not only Bratislava and Vienna, but also Budapest. On the basis of the economic possibilities of a settlement network in the gravitation area of the three cities, i.e. whole country parts, they thought a new European growth centre would develop. However, these ideas basically counted on the enlargement of the potential gravitation area of Vienna, and the other two cities were regarded as adopters and transmitters of the influence of Vienna (cited by Rechnitzer 1997).

Rechnitzer (1997) pointed out that, at the beginning of the planning process, strategic cooperation should be based on smaller, more comprehensible and managable regional units, rather than such large units. He suggested developing relations according to provincial and county regional units (Vienna, Burgerland, Lower-Austrian provinces, Győr- Moson-Sopron, Vas, Zala and Veszprém Counties, as well as Western Slovakia) as a potential solution. Due to the tardiness of the large regional model, he also outlined a small regional model whose cores were the gravitation areas of the particular towns. This was how Vienna, Bratislava, Győr and Sopron were placed in one development unit. The advantage of this idea was that, in this case, the development plans, or

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