In 1783 Joseph II moved the central offices of the kingdom from Pressburg to Buda, and the crown jewels left the castle the following year. The city went on holding coronations, but it had stopped being where anything was decided. On 26 December 1805, days after the battle of Austerlitz, Austria signed peace with Napoleon in the Hall of Mirrors of the Primate's Palace here, which is why the treaty is called the Peace of Pressburg. Four years later the French were back in earnest: they shelled the city in 1809 and blew up Devín Castle as they withdrew, which is why Devín is a ruin whose walls end in mid-air. Then in 1811 the castle above the town caught fire and burned out completely, and for well over a century the emblem of the city was a roofless shell.Roku 1783 presunul Jozef II. ústredné krajinské úrady z Prešporka do Budína a o rok neskôr odviezli z hradu aj korunovačné klenoty. Mesto síce korunovalo ďalej, ale prestalo byť miestom, kde sa o čomkoľvek rozhoduje. 26. decembra 1805, pár dní po bitke pri Slavkove, podpísalo Rakúsko mier s Napoleonom v Zrkadlovej sieni tunajšieho Primaciálneho paláca — preto sa mu hovorí Prešporský mier. O štyri roky prišli Francúzi znova a naostro: roku 1809 mesto ostreľovali a pri ústupe vyhodili do vzduchu Devín, a práve preto je z Devína zrúcanina, ktorej múry sa končia vo vzduchu. Roku 1811 potom vyhorel aj hrad nad mestom a znakom Prešporka bola na viac než storočie strecha, ktorá tam nebola.
