Plastered Baroque townhouses line narrow pedestrian lanes below the castle hill, and the square The Peacemaker used as a Vienna street.
What Staré Mesto looks like
Hlavné námestie sits at the centre, ringed by three and four storey plastered townhouses in cream, pale yellow and ochre. A yellow clock tower marks the Old Town Hall on one corner, and narrow pedestrian lanes run off the square in every direction. Michalská and Ventúrska carry the same plastered facades over ground floor shops, with cobblestone underfoot the whole way.
Several of these lanes carry Baroque to Classicist palace facades from the 1700s, behind arched stone gateways and wrought iron balconies. Zichy Palace, on the corner of Ventúrska and Prepoštská, keeps a strict Classicist front with little ornament beyond its window surrounds. Mirbach Palace a few streets over is Rococo, its facade carved with scrollwork around every window.
The ground climbs steadily toward Bratislava Castle on the hill above. stands at the district's western edge, its Gothic spire visible from several of the lower streets. Remnants of the medieval town wall survive along this upper edge, though they are not open to the public.
At the district's northern edge, the breaks from the plastered core entirely, an inverted pyramid of raw concrete and steel rising over its own plaza. Obchodná ulica is the main shopping street. It runs wider than the lanes around the square, its ground floors given over to shopfronts under the same upper storey render.
Shot in Staré Mesto
For The Peacemaker, the production used several corners of the Old Town as Vienna rather than building a stand in set. Devoe and Kelly's meetings, a car chase and Vertikoff's death all play out on real streets around Hlavné námestie, with a flashback on standing in for Sarajevo instead. The Slovak Radio Building's inverted pyramid tower separately played a Russian government office in Red Sparrow.
The Peacemaker, 1997
Played Vienna, Austria, 1990s
Kelly and Devoe meet Vertikoff here before visiting Shumaker under false identities to gather intelligence on the Russian trucking operation. The square stands in for a street in Vienna. Street View
The Peacemaker, 1997
St. Martin's Cathedral
Played New York City, United States, 1990s
A severely wounded Gavrić is cornered inside the cathedral for the climactic scene, where Kelly disarms the bomb before it reaches critical mass. The building stands in for a Catholic church near the United Nations in New York.
What Staré Mesto can double for
Innere Stadt in Vienna, Austria
The Peacemaker already used this district's own squares and lanes as Vienna, so the same plastered Baroque facades and narrow pedestrian lanes already stood in for the Austrian capital on screen. Vienna's own Innere Stadt is rendered in the same cream and ochre over three to four storeys, with similar arched gateways and wrought iron balconies. Vienna's own streets are wider and carry tram wires overhead in many views, so a tight frame on a lane without tracks holds the match better than a wide shot. Try searching narrow pedestrian lanes now.
Narrow lanes climb toward a castle hill through plastered townhouses, the same geometry Malá Strana repeats below Prague Castle on the river's far bank. Ground floor shops fill the same narrow frontages here as they do around Hlavné námestie. Prague's cobbles run in a tighter pattern and its lanes are often narrower still, so a frame tight on one doorway or window bay holds the match better than a wide two shot. Try searching plastered townhouses now.
Castle District in Budapest, Hungary
The Castle District's Baroque palaces and pastel townhouses sit three and four storeys over cobbled lanes, climbing a hill above the Danube the same way this district climbs toward Bratislava Castle. Buda's own lanes carry the same arched gateways and wrought iron balconies over ground floor shops. Budapest's streets run wider in places and the funicular and Fisherman's Bastion are recognisable from most angles, so a lane kept away from those landmarks holds the match. Try searching cobbled lanes now.
