Judith Bridge
The Judithbrücke ( Juditin most in Czech ) was a stone bridge over the Vltava in Prague . It was the predecessor of today's Charles Bridge and was located downstream - north - of it. It was built between 1158 and 1172, it was the oldest stone bridge in Bohemia and one of the oldest north of the Alps. At that time there were only a few stone bridges in Central Europe, for example in Würzburg (1133), Regensburg (1135) and Dresden .
history
A wooden bridge over the Vltava existed in Prague as early as the 10th century. An indication of this can be found in the so-called Christian legend , which describes the transfer of the murdered Prince Wenceslaus of Bohemia from Stará Boleslav to the Prague Castle and mentions a Vltava bridge . The wooden bridge was destroyed by flooding in 1157/58.
The idea of building a stone bridge to replace it is attributed to the thirteenth Prague Bishop Daniel . He may have been inspired by the stone bridges he saw on the war campaign with the Bohemian King Vladislav II in Italy. The bridge was named after the wife of King Vladislav II, Judith of Thuringia , who is said to have promoted the construction.
The chronicler Vincent Pražský shows his admiration with the following words:
“Your deeds, our dear Judith, most famous Queen of Bohemia, show how clever, noble and capable you are. But what towers above everything is the work of the Prague Bridge. What none of the princes, dukes and kings was able to accomplish up to your government, you, our glorious ruler, achieved within three years. "
The construction was carried out with the help of Italian builders. The bridge was completed in 1172.
In 1253, King Wenceslas I handed over the management of the bridge to the Hospital of the Order of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star , which was founded a year earlier on Křižovnické náměstí ( Cross of the Knights ) in the immediate vicinity of the bridge. The brothers took bridge tolls for maintaining the bridge and they received proceeds from the property that the king had given them. If the bridge was particularly damaged, they also collected alms in Bohemia.
On February 3, 1342, the Judith Bridge was destroyed by a flood . In 1357, Emperor Charles IV decided to build a new stone bridge, which was built parallel to the destroyed Judith Bridge by the imperial building works under the direction of Peter Parler . The end of the Old Town bridge was moved a few dozen meters to the south, to where the Old Town Bridge Tower is today.
description
The Romanesque bridge, which was probably modeled on the Regensburg stone bridge from 1146, was 514 meters long and 6.8 meters wide. It was paved with blocks of quartz or pebble slate and was 4 to 5 meters lower than today's bridge. The bridge piers were equipped with icebreakers . The Judith Bridge stood on around 20 pillars.
remains
Some of the remains of Judith's Bridge can be seen in the Charles Bridge Museum, which is located in the Teutonic Order building on Křižovnické náměstí ( Crusader Square ). A preserved arch of the bridge can still be seen in the canal under Křižovnické náměstí. Other parts are in the cellars of the houses on the Lesser Town . The bridge also included bridge towers on both banks of the Vltava. The Judith Tower on the Lesser Town has been preserved after structural changes and today forms part of the Charles Bridge. Only a remnant of the Old Town Tower on the opposite side remains on the southeast corner of the building of the Crusader Order.
The bridge was probably decorated with sculptures. The sculpture called Bradáč (the bearded one) in the quay wall on the Old Town side and a Romanesque relief in a niche in the Judith Tower on the Lesser Town have been preserved.
Interesting
- After a weir breach in 1784 and 1941, the dammed water flowed away and the foundations of the Judith Bridge were temporarily exposed.
- According to legend, the sculpture Bradáč represents the Italian master builder of the Judith Bridge. The relief served the Prague residents for centuries as a water level indicator. As soon as the surface of the water touched the beard, the evacuation of the old town had to begin.
- The basement of the U zlaté hvězdy house (by the Golden Star) in U Lužického semináře street is formed by a preserved arch from the Judith Bridge. The house has the conscription number 82 (Czech č.p. 82) The house is a UNESCO World Heritage Site .
literature
- Jiří Streit: Divy staré Prahy. Praha: Mladá fronta, 1960, pp. 19–35. (Czech)
Web links
- Queen Judith and the Judith Bridge Olaf Barth and Martina Schneibergová on Radio Prague on July 28, 2001, accessed on November 23, 2017 (German)
- Ruins on the Vltava valley Maria Hammerich-Maier on Radio Prague on February 18, 2009, accessed on November 23, 2017 (German)
Individual evidence
- ^ Alois Svoboda, Anna Tučková: Prahou od jara do jara . Orbis, Praha 1957, chapter: Řeka spoutala město, p. 12 (Czech).
- ↑ Jiří Kovanda: Neživá příroda Prahy a jejího okolí . Academia, Praha 2001, ISBN 80-200-0835-7 (Czech).
Coordinates: 50 ° 5 ′ 11 " N , 14 ° 24 ′ 43" E