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KARL Ů V MOST
First of all , there used to be a crossing via bound logs , the so called steps , in place
of the bridge . In the 10th century , there are some references to a wooden bridge ,
which was , however , threatened by each flood , and therefore Vladislav II had a
stone bridge built around 1170 and named it Judith ’ s Bridge . This bridge existed
until 1342 , when it was destroyed by flood . The bridge not only got the name of
educated and energetic wife of Vladislav , Judith of Thuringia , but she probably
also had merit in the actual building of the bridge . There is a preserved Romanic
relief of the original bridge inside the smaller Malostranska bridge tower
( depicting a sitting person , probably the ruler , passing a document to a kneeling
one - there are different interpretations of who the persons might be and on what
occasion ). The Old Town bridge tower from the 13th century is built in the
emphasized corner buttress of the Křížovnický Monastery , and under the
monastery ’ s front face , there is a preserved outer Old Town vault ( today a gallery ).
Other remains of the vaults can be found in the cellars of several houses in the U
Lužického semináře Street . The head of the Bearded man ( Bradáč ) located today
within the Old Town riverside wall , was originally also a part of the Judith ’ s Bridge ,
probably on the first Old Town vault , and it served the purpose of a water mark .
You can see what the original Romanic bridge paving looked like by the St .
Vaclav ’ s wine pillar at the corner of St . František Church
Petr Parléř was appointed to manage to construction , yet the bridge was only
completed after his death in the beginning of the 15th century ; it is made of sand -
stone blocks , 515 . 76 m long , 9 . 5 m wide ( it was one of the mightiest bridge
constructions of its time ), it rests on 16 vaults of different span reaching from 16 . 62
to 23 . 38 metres . It was damaged by floods several times , e . g . in the years 1432 ( 5
pillars destroyed ), 1784 , and namely in 1890 , when the wood deposits from Vltava ’ s
upper stream demolished 2 pillars and 3 vaults .
In 1723 , the bridge was lighted via oil lanterns . The staircase to Kampa was built in
1844 in place of old stairs from 1785 . Trite sidewalks on the sides of the bridge
were in 1833 replaced by sidewalks of iron ranges , furnished with anti - slipping
notches .