Page 95 - DK Eyewitness Travel Guides - The World's Must-See Places

CZECH REPUBLIC 93

A Bridge Tower Sculptures
A View from little Peter Parl~f's sculptures A Thirty Years' War
include St Vitus, the bridge's
Quarter Bridge Tower In the last hours of this war, the Old
The tall pinnacled patron saint Charles IV, and Town was saved from the invading
A St luitgard, 1710 Wenceslas IV
wedge tower gives a This statue, sculpted by Swedish army. The truce was signed
superb view of the ci 1¥ A St. John Nepomuk in the mid die of the bridge in 164 8. A Crucifix (17th century)
Matthias Braun, is based
of 100 spires.
on a blind Cistercian nun's
celebrated vision in which
Christ appeared and
permitted her to kiss
his wounds.
St Vincent Ferrer ~ StJohn Nepomuk, 1683
and St Procopius, Reliefs on the bridge depict
1712 the martyrdom of St. John
St. Cajetan, 1709 St. Augustine, Nepomuk. Here, the saint is
1708 St Jude St. Anthony of polished bright from people
Thaddaeus, 1708 Padua, 1707 touching it for good luck.

St. Ludmilla, 1710
St. Philip St. Nicholas St. Francis of
Benizi, Tolentino, 1708 with two angels,
1714 1855
~:,-.• A k------- Old Town Bridge
Tower
~ Crucifix (17th-Century)
For 200 years, the wooden crucifix
stood alone on the bridge. The
gilded Christ dates from 1629 and The Madonna, St. Barbara,
the Hebrew words "Holy, Holy, Holy St. Dominic, and St. Margaret,. and The Madonna and
lord" were paid for by a Jew as St. Thomas, 1708 St. Elizabeth, 1707 St. Bernard, 1709
punishment for blasphemy.
Tower entrance

~ Bridge
Tower
sculptures

KEY DATES
S t Joseph, 1854 Pieta, 1859 1357 1683 1683-1720 1974 1992
Charles IV commissions The first statue, of Statues by the Brokoffs The bridge becomes a The Historic Center
Peter Par~r to construct St. John Nepomuk, is and Braun are erected pedestrian area and a of Prague joins the
a new bridge, replacing placed at the center along the bridge. focal point of the city. UNESCO list of World
the Judith Bridge. of the bridge. Heritage Sites.