Bratislava's red Prešporáčik sightseeing cars turn 25, and the first one is in a museum

For 25 years, small red cars that look like early 20th-century trams have carried tourists around Bratislava's old town. The Slovak Technical Museum is marking the anniversary with an exhibition at its Transport Museum in Bratislava, where the very first Prešporáčik is on display.¹

The design was inspired by an old postcard of a historic vehicle and, in part, by the trams that ran in the city in the early 1900s. The red paint is the city's official colour, and Bratislava's coat of arms is on the doors. The name came from a public poll, after Prešporok, the city's old Slovak name.¹

From horse carriages to oldtimers

The vehicle was designed by Dušan Šmidák, who set up a family firm in 1997 and was the first to offer tours of Bratislava in period horse-drawn carriages. As tourist interest grew, he went on to build the first Prešporáčik Oldtimer.¹

Michal Jajcaj of the Transport Museum told Rádio Slovensko that the exhibition also covers technical details that are rarely talked about.²