St. Augustine on Charles Bridge / Sv. Augustýn na Karlove moste (Prague) - Statues of Religious Figures on Waymarking.com

Depicted Baroque statue of St. Augustine (Sv. Augustýn) 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.

Statue of St. Augustine is the 11th one on the right looking from the Old Town Bridge Tower. The sandstone statue, work of Jeroným Bedrich Kohl (1708), was donated by the Prague Convent of the Augustinian Order. St. Augustine, dressed in an Alexandrian episcopal vestment, is holding a burning heart and stepping on heretical books (with the names of the heretics, whose teachings St. Augustine defeated). By his left foot, there is a little angel trying to transfer a sea with a shell (it is easier to transfer a sea than to understand the secret of the Holy Trinity). On the simple pedestal, there is a cartouche with the Latin inscription To the prince among the teachers of the Church: 1708 and below the cartouche, there is the Latin inscription Erected by his proud sons in memory of the prince among teachers, the great patriarch of the Church, St. Augustine: 1708. The original statue is now in Gorlice at Vyšehrad. The exact replica on the bridge was sculpted by J. Dušek, O. Velínský, A. Sopr and J. Hampl in 1971.

Augustine of Hippo (13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine or Saint Austin, was an early Christian theologian and philosopher whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. He was the bishop of Hippo Regius (modern-day Annaba, Algeria), located in Numidia (Roman province of Africa). He is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers in the Western Christianity for his writings in the Patristic Era. Among his most important works are City of God and Confessions. [wiki]