Prague Part One, The River

Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic, and former capital of Bohemia. I was there three days, and it is a fair-sized city, so this is the first of four parts. Other parts are here:



I was lucky enough to get a view of the city as my aeroplane came into the airport.


So let us start with the river and its bridges. The Vltava is the longest river in the Czech Republic, and flows generally northwards to join the Elbe at Mělník, which in turn discharges into the North Sea northwest of Hamburg.

It is crossed by 18 bridges in Prague. In the image above, you can see four of them. The one at the bottom is the most famous; the Charles Bridge. Above it is the Legion Bridge, then the Jirásek Bridge and at the top the Palacký Bridge.

The Charles Bridge is the big tourist attraction, and was packed with people whenever we saw it. This is a view looking east along the bridge.


Construction supposedly started at 5:31am on 9 July 1357, with the first stone laid by King Charles IV, the time being auspicious as it is palindromic.

Note the statues. These were installed late seventeenth and early eighteen century - though the bridge has been damaged in several floods and other events, so some are move recent.

You can also see, more or less in the centre, a gatehouse. There is a similar one on the west side.


Here is a view of the bridge from the northeast.


And from the Legion Bridge to the south.


We went on a river cruise, which took us through a lock just south of the Legion Bridge. The river is navigable up as far as České Budějovice, which is about seventy miles south of Prague.

This is the view from the boat looking north from the lock as the gates have just opened; the Legion Bridge can be seen.

This is Legion Bridge from above. It opened 1901.


It passes over a small island, and steps allow you to get to the island. This is the view looking southeast from the island at the bridge.


From Legion Bridge you can see Jirásek Bridge; the lock is also visible on the right.


To the north of Charles Bridge is Manes Bridge, opened 1914.



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