most Karla Burky Bridge

The Charles Burka Bridge connects the two main parts of the municipality of Sedlec-Prčice in the Příbram district. It is an Empire-style structure made of quarry stone, two hundred meters long and ten meters wide, with statues of Saint Florian and Saint John of Nepomuk. The bridge is a cultural monument and is part of the Sedlec-Prčice urban monument zone, declared in nineteen ninety-two.

The story of the bridge begins with the Malovec family. Prčice was purchased on November thirtieth, seventeen twenty-five by the knight Jan Vít Malovec of Malovic from Jan Václav Vchynský of Vchynic for more than twenty thousand gold coins. After the death of the last male descendant of the family, the extensive estate was inherited by Johana Malovcová, née Olivová, widow of Jan Hynek Malovec. She married the wealthy Prague burgher Karel Burka.

Burka set about greatly improving his new residence. He repaired the castle, established an English park there, invested in the decoration of the church, and had a water supply system and a fountain built in the town square. His most significant work became the stone bridge. Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, there was only a marshy meadow around Sedlecký Stream and a difficult path led through it.

The foundation stone was ceremonially laid in eighteen fifteen with the attendance of the captain of the Beroun district, to which the Prčice estate then belonged. Construction lasted eight years. Workers on it were mainly local subjects as part of their obligations, yet the costs reached sixty thousand gold coins of Viennese currency, which was a very high sum.

The foundations in marshy terrain rest on piles. Nearly all the oak trees from the game reserve in nearby Uhřice were felled for their production. The core of the bridge is a masonry dam with three vaulted arches through which water flows.

The sandstone statues of saints in larger than life size were created in eighteen nineteen by Ignác Michal Platzer, son of the renowned Baroque sculptor Ignác František Platzer. His models of the statues are stored in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. After the First World War, when some saint statues were destroyed, the statue of Saint John of Nepomuk did not escape either. In nineteen twenty-three someone cut off its head and threw it into the stream.

Karel Burka, however, overestimated his financial capabilities and fell into debt. In eighteen thirty the estates of Prčice and Uhřice were confiscated from him, and forced administration was imposed on the remaining Malovec property. Both Burka and his wife Johana spent their final years in poverty. His generous plans are today remembered only by the name of the bridge.

In twenty seventeen the bridge underwent a complete reconstruction. Preparation lasted two years and the actual repair was planned for nine months.