St. Jude Thaddeus on Charles Bridge / Sv. Juda Tadeáš na Karlove moste (Prague)
N 50° 05.207 E 014° 24.563
33U E 457748 N 5548446
Depicted Baroque statue of St. Jude Thaddeus (Sv. Juda Tadeáš) is one of 31 historic statues (...or groups) decorating famous Gothic Charles Bridge (Karluv most) in Prague' centre.
Waymark Code: WMNG3E
Location: Hlavní město Praha, Czechia
Date Posted: 03/09/2015
Views: 52
Depicted Baroque statue of St. Jude Thaddeus (Sv. Juda Tadeáš) 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. Jude Thaddeus is the 10th one on the right looking from the Old Town Bridge Tower. The sandstone statue, work of Jan Oldrich Mayer (1708), was donated by František Sezima, the knight of Mitrovice, Nemyšle, and Jetrichovice (1668–1720). The pose of St. Jude holding the Gospel and a club, with which he was beaten to death by pagans, seems conventional and somewhat static. On the simple Baroque pedestal, there is the Latin inscription To the devoted friend of Jesus Christ: 1708. Kohl’s concept of the saint became almost an impartive for Jude’s portrayals. In the late 1940s and during the August occupation in 1968, the statue of the protector in difficult situations was surrounded with hundreds of candles of those praying for a happy ending.
According to the Bible, St. Jude Thaddeus (also Jude, Jude of James, Jude Thaddaeus, Judas Thaddaeus or Lebbaeus) was a distant relative and one of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ. He gospeled in Arabia, Syria and Persia, where he was captured by pagan priests around the year of 80, tortured and finally killed with arrows (in some other versions, with the club, pole-axe or spear that became his attributes). He is venerated as a protector in difficult and insolvable situations.