Staroměstská mostecká věž Tower

Staroměstská mostecká věž is located on the Old Town of Prague on Crožovnický Square at the right-hand entrance to Charles Bridge. It is not just a fortress structure, but a representative victory arch, which was supposed to convey a power message to the victorious traveler. When a man crossed the threshold, a view of Prague Castle was spread in front of him, where the golden mosaic of the Last Court shone at the Saint's Gate. The tower thus served as a gateway to the most extravagant part of Prague, and it was the Emperor Karel IV. who stated that the coronation parades of his followers would lead this very place.

The building of the tower was started shortly after laying the base stone of the bridge in 1357. The first builder was Master Otto, who determined the form of the future work. After that Michael Savojský joined and led the construction to the top of the first floor. Then the building was taken over by the imperial parlerian smelter, and the work continued between the seventies and eighties of the fourteenth century, when the tower was completed. The ideal creator of the magnificent plastic decoration of the facade was Karel IV. himself, his successor Václav IV. then added partial elements. All the sculptures came from the workshop of Peter Parléra.

Petr Parléř was in its field of versatile talent - builder, stonemason, sculptor and carver, today ranked among the greatest artists of European top goth. He started his dazzling Prague engagement in 1356, when as a 24-year-old he took over at the request of Charles IV the building of the St. Subsequently, he was entrusted with the construction of the Charles Bridge and the Old Town Tower, which became an emblem of Gothic fortification gates in Czech countries.

The tower was once a symbol of the greatest glory of the Czech kingdom, but in the seventeenth century it turned into a symbol of Habsburg power. In 1621, after the failed uprising of the Czech Protestant states, Ferdinand II had the heads of twelve executed Czech masters displayed in iron baskets. One head was taken at the request of the widow after a year, the other eleven heads remained hanging for ten years before they were taken out in 1631. But their later fate remains unknown.

The tower suffered the worst during the 30-year war. In 1648, the Swedes tried to get to Staré Město by attacking Charles Bridge. The Prague people defended themselves from the Old Town Tower, which was barricaded by logs, and were supported by students and professors from near Clementine. However, the Swedish artillery fire completely destroyed the Gothic decoration of the west side of the tower - its shape was not preserved. A stone plate with a Latin text resembling the heroic struggle of the Pražani was attached to the site of the destroyed statues in the mid-seventeenth century by Carlo Lurago and Giovanni Spinetti.

The tower was further damaged during the revolutionary storms of 1848. A thorough reconstruction was carried out between 1874 and 1878 under the guidance of architect Josef Mocker, co-author of the project of the modern construction of the St. Matthew Cathedral. In the twentieth century, further partial repairs were followed, but the construction and decoration were rather insensitive. In 1972, six large sandstone statues of kings and saints were taken from the tower, along with sign shields.

Today we cannot see the tower in its original Gothic beauty. Many damage and repairs turned her into a double witness - both the glory of the medieval kingdom and the storms that destroyed her. Yet it remains one of Europe's most important gothic works and an essential part of the experience of walking through Charles Bridge.