Visiting Prague

The beautiful city of Prague owes a lot of Charles IV projects – it’s easy to tell by all the “Charles” whatever dotted around town - Charles University, hotel, Charles Square and many others. But of course the most famous and popular within people project is definitely Charles Bridge. If you walk there during the day and you can see many musicians, artists and craftsman. At night Charles Bridge is especially wonderful and romantic, but the best time to enjoy beauty of Charles Bridge is early in the morning, when tourist crowds are still sleeping.

The spectacular Charles Bridge (Karlův most) was built in 1357, and this 520m-long bridge (1770ft) has witnessed more than 600 years of processions, battles, executions and, increasingly, film shoots. It was the only bridge connected 2 halves of Prague hotels in different river banks for 400 years. King Charles IV’s favorite architect and builder Peter Parler, originally built the present-day bridge. At the beginning it was just a functional construction for jousting tournaments and during many years the only decoration on the bridge was a simple Crucifix, but later in 16-18 centuries the urge of the Catholics for ornamentation resulted in construction of 30 statues.

The Bridge contains 16 pillars and 3 bridge towers. However most of the statues are not from that time, due to various floods and catastrophes over the centuries, they are copies, but close to real. 30 statues mounted to the balustrade of the Charles Bridge form two rows, one on each side depicting saints on bridge piers. Most of statues were erected around 1700 and designed in baroque-style. The first one on the Charles Bridge was cross erected in the 14 th century. The next was the Bruncvik statue erected before 1503, but only a pedestal is preserved. Statue of St. John of Nepomuk is the oldest preserved dated back to 1683, and the newest one is St. Cyril and Methodius from 1928. The most prominent sculptors made these statues in Charles Bridge such as Matthais Braun and Ferdinand Maxmilian. Unfortunately, the statues you see today aren’t the originals, back in the 1960’s they were taken down and replaced. If you want to see the originals, you can find them in the Lapidary of the National Museum and in casemate under second Prague Castle, Vysehrad.

Following is a list of the statues in order if you are travelling from the Old Town side to Malá Stráná.

On the left hand of the bridge from the Old Town bridge tower:

1. St. Ivo
2. St. Barbara, St. Margaret and St. Elizabeth
3. Statue of the Lamenting of Christ
4. St. Joseph
5. St. Francis Xaverius
6. St. Christopher
7. St. Francis Borgias
8. St. Ludmila
9. Statue of St. Francis of Assisi
10. St. Vincent of Ferrara and St. Procope
11. St. Nicolas of Tolentino
12. St. Luitgarda
13. St. Adalbert
14. Statuary of St. John of Matha, St. Felix of Valois and St. Ivan
15. St. Wenceslas

On the right hand of the bridge from the Old Town bridge tower:

1. St. Bernard
2. St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Dominique
3. Statuary of St. Cross - Calvary
4. St. Anna
5. St. Cyril and St. Method
6. St. John the Baptist
7. Sts. Norbert, Wenceslas and Sigismond
8. St. John of Nepomuk
9. St. Anthony of Padua
10. St. Judas Thaddeus
11. St. Augustine
12. St. Cajetan
13. St. Philip Benicius
14. St. Vitus
15. St. Kosma and St. Damian

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