A green Danube river, beautiful forests and swamps full of domestic animals – nothing at the point where river Morava flows into the Dunaj close to Devín could make you think about borders, escape and death.
But in fact this area was part of a temporarily impenetrable border: the Iron Curtain. The Danube divided the east from the west, capitalism from communism. One world from a completely different one. And this border was well protected, a lot of people tried to flee to the nearby Austria – you can see it so clearly and near from this point. Death was daily business.
To keep up the memory of what happend in the Cold war and to teach young adults that freedom is not self-evident, the Gate of Freedom memorial has been constructed here. And we can all be happy that this area is accessible again, because it is really beautiful.
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