Tours · Bratislava · castle
The Gorilla Wiretaps - Bratislava Castle
In 2005 and 2006 Slovakia's secret service bugged a Bratislava flat in an operation codenamed Gorilla; when transcripts of alleged kickback talks leaked on 21 December 2011, thousands marched up to the parliament beside this castle on 27 January 2012 and pelted it with bananas and eggs, yet nobody has ever been convicted.
About this place
Bratislava Castle, the white palace with four corner towers that locals compare to an upturned table, has crowned this hill above the Danube for centuries. Its 47 metre Crown Tower once guarded the Holy Crown of Hungary, Maria Theresa made it a royal residence, a fire on 28 May 1811 turned it into a ruin, and the palace you see today was rebuilt between 1953 and 1968. In September 1992 the constitution of independent Slovakia was signed in its Knights' Hall. Right next door stands the National Council, the Slovak parliament, and it was this building that an angry crowd targeted in the winter of 2012. The trigger was the Gorilla file: transcripts from a secret service bugging operation in 2005 and 2006 in a flat on Vazovova Street, where, according to the analysts, top politicians and a financial group discussed kickbacks for privatisations and state contracts. The file leaked online on 21 December 2011, a court confirmed in January 2012 that the wiretaps had been authorised, and on 27 January several thousand protesters marched from SNP Square past the Presidential Palace and up to this hill, pelting the parliament with bananas and eggs. The content of the file has never been officially confirmed, charges have come and gone, and to this day nobody has been convicted, which makes Gorilla Slovakia's most famous unsolved scandal.
Key facts
- 6 years — The Gorilla transcripts from the 2005 to 2006 bugging stayed secret for six years before they leaked online on 21 December 2011.
- 5000 euros — The top of the 3,000 to 5,000 euro damages claim the parliament office announced after bananas and eggs hit its building on 27 January 2012.
- 47 metres — Height of the castle's Crown Tower, the 13th century corner tower where the Holy Crown of Hungary was once guarded.