The story of this place
Charles IV, a devout believer in numerology, is said to have laid the bridge's first stone at 5:31 a.m. on 9 July 1357 — a palindromic sequence 1357 9 7 5 31. Built to replace the flood-wrecked Judith Bridge, it was reputedly mortared with egg whites hauled from across Bohemia. For 400 years it was Prague's only Vltava crossing, carrying coronation processions toward the castle. Between 1683 and 1928 thirty baroque statues rose along its parapets; travellers still rub the bronze plaque of St John of Nepomuk, thrown from the bridge on the king's orders, for a return to Prague. At dawn, before the crowds, buskers and painters have it almost to themselves.