Bratislava is tied at the hip with Hungary and mainly to its disastrous defeat at Mohacs in 1526 that signed the end of Hungarian kingdom. The outcome of that battle forced the Hungarian court to move to Bratislava, named by the Hungarians, Pozsony and by the Austrians, Pressburg. The rest of Hungarian territory was incorporated in the Habsburg empire and Bratislava/Pzsony/Pressburg  served as the Hungarian capital from 1526 until 1784 while the Hungarian parliament continued to meet there until 1848.

During this more than 250 years, 19 Habsburg rulers were crowned kings of Hungary in the city’s Gothic Cathedral of St. Martin. Maria Theresa, the famous queen of the Habsburg Empire was crowned here in 1741 making the city flourish during her reign. After her demise, the importance of the city decreased, and today, after the dissolution Czechoslovakia seems a smaller capital that any of its neighbors.
Its new latin name was coined in 1919 but its roots go back to the first millennium when it was mentioned as Vratislaburgum, Braslavespurch or Preslavasburc by Slovaks, Czechs or Germans.