Friends Lecture: The Charles Bridge and Its Statues in Baroque Prague

Saints, Traitors, and Heretics The Charles Bridge and Its Statues in Baroque Prague, presented by Professor Howard Louthan, director of the Center for Austrian Studies and professor of history at the University of Minnesota.

For any tourist who has visited Prague, one of the great highlights is a walk across Charles Bridge. This medieval structure has the feel of an outdoor carnival with bustling crowds of foreign visitors crossing the river, stopping to watch performers and colorful buskers, or simply gazing at both sides of the beautiful city before them. The most distinctive feature of the bridge, however, are its statues. Over two dozen monuments flank either side of the structure surrounding passersby in what is one of the most outstanding displays of baroque sculpture in all of Europe.

But what does all this mean?

This talk will slow us down as we explore the famous bridge and its statuary. We will examine the stories behind the monuments and discover that there was a broader and more cohesive program linking the statues on the bridge. Merging religious and patriotic sentiment together, the Charles Bridge emerged from a period of crisis as a triumphant marker of identity for the city and the kingdom of Bohemia.