In 1357 that King undertook the building of the present bridge. The building was erected under the direction of Matthew of Arras, and afterwards of Peter Parler and his son John. The work was often interrupted by storms and inundations, to which the Vltava, the outlet of all the rivers of Central and Southern Bohemia, is particularly liable. It was, therefore, only completed in 1503.
We first pass under the bridge tower of the old town, which is decorated with statues of the Bohemian patron saints and with the coats of arms of the countries that were formerly connected with Bohemia as well as that of the old town itself.
The statues that now ornament the bridge formed no part of the original structure. As can be seen in ancient engravings, a crucifix only stood on the bridge at first. Rudolph erected statues of the Madonna and of St. John, and the others were gradually added, principally during the period of Catholic reaction in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. There are now thirty statues of unequal value, fifteen on each side of the bridge. It may be of interest to give a list of these statues, beginning with those that are to the right of the visitor who crosses the bridge from the old town into the Malá Strana:—
1. St. Bernard (1709), by Jäckel.
2. St. Dominicus and Thomas Aquinas (1708), by Jäckel.
3. A bronze-gilt statue of the Crucifixion, with statues of the Virgin Mary and St. John.
4. St. John the Baptist (1853), by J. Max.
5. St. Ignacius of Loyola (1711), by Ferdinand Prokov; a foundation of the Jesuit College of Prague.
6. The Holy Trinity (1706), also by Prokov. Between this group and the next one, a cross and
