Slavín is the military cemetery and memorial on a hill above Bratislava’s Old Town, built between 1957 and 1960 to the design of Ján Svetlík and opened on the fifteenth anniversary of the city’s liberation in April 1945. It holds the graves of 6,845 Soviet soldiers in six mass graves and 278 individual plots, and was declared a national cultural monument in 1961. A broad stair leads up to a central hall and a 42-metre obelisk topped by a soldier’s figure, with the dates of the liberation carved into the outer walls. Entry is free and unrestricted, and the terrace gives an open view across the city. The surrounding villa quarter is largely residential and diplomatic.