The sculptures of the Charles Bridge I. - Prague, Czech Republic
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ToRo61
N 50° 05.184 E 014° 24.761
33U E 457984 N 5548401
The sculptures of the Charles Bridge
Waymark Code: WMTQRF
Location: Hlavní město Praha, Czechia
Date Posted: 12/31/2016
Views: 43
The alley of 30 Baroque statues (most of them) and statuaries situated on the balustrade forms a unique connection of artistic harmony with the underlying Gothic bridge.
Most sculptures were erected between 1683 and 1714. They represent various saints and patron saints worshipped at that time. The most prominent Bohemian sculptors of the time took part on decorating the bridge, such as: Matthias Braun, Jan Brokoff and his sons Michael Joseph and Ferdinand Maximilian.
Among the most notable sculptures, one can find the statuaries of St. Luthgard, St. Crucifix or St. John of Nepomuk.
This card depicts two sculptures:
'Statue of the Madonna, St. Dominic and Thomas Aquinas'
This group was sculpted by Matej Václav Jäckel in 1708, and sponsored by the Dominicans Convent of St. Giles in the Old Town of Prague. The statue portrays the Madonna giving the Rosary to St. Dominic on the left, with St. Thomas Aquinas standing to the right.
'The Crucifix and Calvary'
This sculpture is one of the most historically interesting sculptures on the bridge, which gradually gained its present appearance throughout many centuries. The original wooden crucifix was installed at this place soon after 1361 and probably destroyed by the Hussites in 1419. A new crucifix with a wooden corpus was erected in 1629 but was severely damaged by the Swedes towards the end of the Thirty Years' War. The remnants of this crucifix can be found in the lapidarium of the National Museum in Prague. This was replaced by another wooden Calvary which, in turn, was replaced with a metal version in 1657. Bought in Dresden, this crucifix was originally made in 1629 by H. Hillger based upon a design by W. E. Brohn. In 1666, two lead figures were added, but these were replaced in 1861 by the present sandstone statues by Emanuel Max, portraying the Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist.
The golden Hebrew text on the crucifix was added in 1696. In 1696, the Prague authorities accused a local Jewish leader, one Elias Backoffen, of blasphemy. As his punishment he was ordered to raise the funds for purchasing of gold-plated Hebrew letters, placed around the head of the statue, spelling out "Holy, Holy, Holy, the Lord of Hosts," the Kedusha from the Hebrew prayer and originating in the vision from the Book of Isaiah. The inscription was a symbolic humiliation and degradation of Prague Jews, forcing them to pay for a set of golden letters referring to God and hung around the neck of the statue of Christ (information from Steven Plaut, The "Vav" from the Charles Bridge). A bronze tablet with explanatory text in Czech, English and Hebrew was mounted under the statue by the City of Prague in 2000. The tablet's placement came after an American Rabbi, Ronald Brown of Temple Beth Am in Merrick, New York was passing over the bridge and noted the possibly offensive nature of the placing of the text. Upon a direct request to the mayor, the tablet was soon placed to the side of the statue.
Physical Address:
Charles Bridge
Prague, Czech Republic
Description of Postcard Location:
the Charles Bridge - sculptures 'Statue of the Madonna, St. Dominic and Thomas Aquinas' and
'The Crucifix and Calvary'
Related Web Site: Not listed
Parking Coordinates: Not Listed
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