Charles Bridge

Brief Information

Charles Bridge stands almost exactly where Judith Bridge once stood before it was destroyed by a flood. So it is not merely a convenient crossing over the Vltava: its structure reads as the city's response to an earlier catastrophe. The new bridge was made wider and stronger, set on sixteen stone arches, and faced with dressed sandstone blocks. It connected Malá Strana and Staré Město, and with them, the route between Prague Castle and the Old Town.

The most useful fact for looking at the place is that for a long time the bridge was above all an engineering and urban link, not an open-air gallery. The sculptures appeared later, in the Baroque period. Before they were installed, the main decoration was the towers at both ends of the bridge, so the silhouette of the crossing should be read from the supports and gates toward the statues, not the other way around.

What to Notice First

It makes sense to compare the bridge on three levels: the stone arches, the towers, and the sculptures. The arches and sandstone facing show why the crossing could serve as the city's main passage, even though floods could still break its spans and supports. The Old Town Tower is unusual because it stands not at the very end, but on an intermediate pier directly above the water: the entrance to Staré Město is literally placed on the bridge structure here.

On the western side, another clue is visible: the two Lesser Town towers were built at different times, so one looks lower and more massive, while the taller one echoes the Old Town Tower. Along the railings, it is worth looking not only for the row of saints, but also for a small marker of the legend of Jan Nepomucký: a cross and two copper nails beside it. The neo-Gothic staircase to Kampa adds another trace of how the bridge accumulated new connections with the city.