The guard booth, reminiscent of the town guardhouse that stood on Main Square from the 17th to the 19th century, was built as part of a comprehensive renovation of the square carried out between 2005 and 2006 (the square was reopened to the public during the Bratislava for Everyone event in April 2006). 

The booth was placed by its designers – the architects and artists Marián Prešnajder, Otto Grossmann, Juraj Šimek, and Ján Svítek – in the eastern section of the square nearby a tree and benches. The walls are made of pale sandstone, accentuated at the front and back by deep niches with rear walls of dark polished stone. The designers also used stone for the saddle roof. The front niche features a bronze statue of a standing guard, depicted slightly larger than life size, dressed in a stylised period uniform. He holds a rifle in his right hand and looks towards the northwest, i.e. towards the former Vice Governor's Palace and Franciscan Square. A drinking fountain protrudes from the rear niche – a pentagonal stone pedestal topped with a rounded bowl formed of the same material. Its base is accented by a nozzle sculpted as a stylised brass flower. The button to activate water flow is located on a side of the pentagonal base. The smooth stone rear wall of the niche above the drinking fountain bears an engraved logo of the Bratislava Water Management Company, which donated this work to the city and its residents. 

The side wall of the booth features a bronze relief depicting the former town guardhouse and, below it, an educational text in Slovak and English in bronze relief capital letters: 

„MESTSKÁ STRÁŽNICA 

1767 - 1860 

NA JUŽNEJ STRANE HLAVNÉHO NÁMESTIA 

SA NACHÁDZALA OD 17. STOROČIA 

DREVENÁ BUDOVA MESTSKEJ STRÁŽNICE. 

V OSEMNÁSTOM STOROČÍ VYHORELA. 

V ROKU 1767 STAVITEĽ M. WALCH 

POSTAVIL NOVÚ MUROVANÚ STRÁŽNICU. 

TÁTO BAROKOVÁ STRÁŽNICA 

BOLA Z NÁMESTIA ODSTRÁNENÁ 

V 60-TYCH ROKOCH 19. STOROČIA. 

TOWN GUARDHOUSE 

1767–1860 

FROM THE 17th TO THE 18th CENTURY, 

WHEN IT BURNT DOWN, 

THE WOODEN BUILDING 

OF THE TOWN GUARDHOUSE 

STOOD IN THE SOUTHERN PART 

OF THE SQUARE. 

A NEW BRICK GUARDHOUSE 

WAS BUILT BY BUILDER M. WALCH IN 1767. 

THIS BAROQUE GUARDHOUSE 

WAS REMOVED 

FROM THE SQUARE IN THE 1860s.“ 

The opposite wall of the booth bears a plastic sign with information about the project Bratislava Prepares for Climate Change – Pilot Application of Rainwater Retention Measures in an Urban Environment, which also concerns the planting of trees on Main Square. 

PB

Research status as of 20. 06. 2023.