Sculptural group of St. Barbara, St. Margaret and St. Elizabeth on Charles Bridge / Sousoší Sv. Barbory, Sv. Markéty a Sv. Alžbety na Karlove moste (Prague) - Statues of Religious Figures on Waymarking.com

Depicted Baroque sculptural group of St. Barbara, St. Margaret and St. Elizabeth (sousoší Sv. Barbory, Sv. Markéty a Sv. Alžbety) is one of 31 historic statues (...or groups) decorating famous Gothic Charles Bridge (Karluv most) in Prague' centre.

What makes Charles Bridge a top tourist attraction is the open air sculptural gallery which adorns it. It was created much later than the actual bridge construction, mostly in 1706-1714 in the expectation of the canonisation of John of Nepomuk (Jan Nepomucký). Despite the partial changes the gallery has undergone since its creation, it is still a great reflection of the history of the Czech lands - there are 31 statues and groups of statues in all on the bridge today with approximately 100 figures, among them also prime works of the great men of central European sculpture Matthias B. Braun and Ferdinand M. Brokoff. Since 1965 the precious originals of the statues have been gradually replaced by replicas. In extent and quality this bridge gallery has no equal in Europe.

Baroque sculptural group of St. Barbara, St. Margaret and St. Elizabeth is the second one on the left looking from the Old Town Bridge Tower. The sandstone sculptural group is work of Michal Jan Brokoff (1707). St. Barbara is in the middle, St. Margaret is on her left and St. Elizabeth is on her right. The statue of St. Elizabeth, which is artistically the most valuable, was probably made by Ferdinand Maxmilián Brokoff; the pedestal is most likely the work of Jan Brokoff. The statuary was donated by Imperial Councilor and Associated Justice Jan Václav Obytecký of Obytec (†1707); his CoA is on the pedestal below St. Margaret and the CoA of his wife is below St. Elizabeth. The Latin inscription below the statue of St. Barbara says Pray for us now and in the hour of our death. Josef Max renovated the statuary in 1852.

St. Barbara, Feast Day December 4, known in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Great Martyr Barbara, was an early Christian saint and martyr. Accounts place her in the 3rd century in Nicomedia, present-site Turkey or in Heliopolis of Phoenicia, present-day Lebanon. There is no reference to her in the authentic early Christian writings, nor in the original recension of Saint Jerome's martyrology. Her name can be traced to the 7th century, and veneration of her was common, especially in the East, from the 9th century.

Margaret the Virgin-Martyr, known as Margaret of Antioch (in Pisidia) in the West, and as and Saint Marina the Great-Martyr in the East, is celebrated as a saint by the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches on July 20 and on July 17 in the Orthodox Church. Her historical existence has been questioned. She was declared apocryphal by Pope Gelasius I in 494, but devotion to her revived in the West with the Crusades. She was reputed to have promised very powerful indulgences to those who wrote or read her life, or invoked her intercessions; these no doubt helped the spread of her cultus.

Elizabeth of Hungary, T.O.S.F. (7 July 1207 – 17 November 1231)was a princess of the Kingdom of Hungary, Landgravine of Thuringia, Germany, and a greatly venerated Catholic saint. Elizabeth was married at the age of 14, and widowed at 20. After her husband's death she sent her children away and regained her dowry, using the money to build a hospital where she herself served the sick. She became a symbol of Christian charity after her death at the age of 24 and was quickly canonized. [wiki]