OLD TOWN BRIDGE TOWER

Daily 10 am to 10 pm; entrance fee: 40 CZK; Karluv most; metro: Staromestka (A)

MAP

Tourists from all over the world stroll on the spot where, in 1648, an army of students and Jews held out against the Swedes, marking a turning point in the Thirty Years’ War. During the battle, the decoration on the bridge side of the tower was destroyed.

Nevertheless, the stone edifice, erected around 1391 to plans by Peter Parler, rates as Europe’s finest medieval bridge tower.

The coats of arms above the gateway are meant to symbolise the ten countries which Charles IV united to form the Kingdom of Bohemia, plus the emblem of King Wenceslas IV, during whose reign work on the tower was completed. In the vaulted dungeons the prisoners’ inscriptions can still be detected.