Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The statues
A bronze
crucifix
has stood on Charles Bridge since its construction, but the first sculpture
wasn'taddeduntil1683,when
StJohnofNepomuk
appeared.His
statue
wassuchapropa-
ganda success that the Catholic church authorities ordered another 21 to be erected between
1706 and 1714. These included works by Prague's leading Baroque sculptors, led by Matthi-
as Bernhard Braun and Ferdinand Maximilian Brokof. The sculptures, many of them crafted
in sandstone, have weathered badly over the years and have mostly been replaced by copies;
to see the originals, and several statues whose subjects fell out of favour and were removed,
visit the
Lapidárium
.
The Charles Bridge statues
(1)StCosmasandStDamian
Paidforbytheuniversitymedicalfaculty.Jesusisflankedby
thesetwinmartyrs,bothdressedinmedievaldoctors'garb-theywererenownedforoffering
their medical services free of charge.
(2) St Wenceslas
Added by Czech nationalists in the nineteenth century.
(3)StVitus
Brokof'sStVitusisdepictedasaRomanlegionary,hisfootbeinggentlynibbled
by one of the lions that went on to devour him in a Roman amphitheatre.
(4)ThefoundersoftheTrinitarianOrder
Oneofthemoststrikingsculpturalgroups,again
by Brokof: St John of Matha, the hermit Felix of Valois and his pet stag, plus, for some un-
known reason, St Ivan, whose good works included ransoming persecuted Christians - three
petrified souls can be seen through the prison bars below - from the infidels, represented by
a bored Turkish jailor and his rabid dog.
(5) St Philip Benizi
Amid the blackened sandstone, the lightly coloured figure of the (at the
time) only recently canonized Servite friar stands out as the only marble statue. At his feet
sits the papal crown, which he turned down when it was offered to him in 1268.
