The Charles Bridge is a medievalstone arch bridge that crosses the Vltava River. Construction began in 1357under King Charles IV and wasn’t finished until the early 15th century.Originally called Stone Bridge or Prague Bridge, it has been called "CharlesBridge" since 1870.

This picture is taken fromthe tower on one end of the bridge. More on the towers of Prague next time.

The Bridge is 1,693 feet long and nearly 33 feet wide, with 16 arches. It is decorated by 30 statues, most in baroque-style and originally erected between 1683 and 1714. Now all of them have been replaced by replicas and the originals are stowed away somewhere for safe keeping.

I know that I shared that information on a previous post, but you probably forgot or missed that post all together. In any case, here is new information, on as many of those statues as I could figure out.

Statue of St. Cyril and St. Methodius is of the Saints Cyril and Methodius who were missionaries who introduced Christianity to the Slavs. They were also the creators of the Glagolitic alphabet, which allowed Slavic nations to write the words of their new language. This statue was sculpted by Karel Dvořák between 1928 and 1938, and was erected by the Ministry of Education.

St. Francis Xavier's statue is a 1913 replica by Čeněk Vosmík of Ferdinand Brokoff's original 1711 sculpture. The statue depicts an Indian and a Japanese prince being baptized by the saint, along with a Moor in chains and a Tatar.

Statue of St. Francis Borgia was commissioned by the imperial Burgrave František z Colletů in 1710. The sculpture shows St. Borgia, a Jesuit priest, with two angels.

St. Vitus is portrayed standing on a base in the shape of cave, from which lions crawl up. The Saint is was a Roman aristocrat who was martyred for his faith. The statue was sculpted by Ferdinand Brokoff in 1714.

St. Cajetan, founder of the religious order of Theatins, is shown here holding a book and standing before an obelisk representing the Trinity. This statue was sculpted by Ferdinand Brokoff in 1709.

This statue is the largest and most expensive sculpture on the bridge, designed in 1714. It honors Saints John of Matha and Felix of Valois who were the two founders of the Trinitarians, the order that supervised buying back and redeeming of Christians in captivity under Turks. St. Ivan is incorporated into the group because he is the patron saint of Slavs. The base depicts a cave in which three chained Christians are praying to the Lord for salvation.

I’m not Catholic so myknowledge of saints is pretty minimal, but my goodness, there are a lot of them,who lived some crazy lives. And there are 24 more sculptures on the bridge! Butthey were all pretty amazing.