St John Nepomuk on the Bridge

JAN 01 1683 · 12:00

The bronze statue of St John of Nepomuk on Charles Bridge, cast in Nuremberg by Wolfgang Hieronymus Heroldt from Jan Brokoff's wooden model (Matthias Rauchmiller's clay design), set in place 1683. The first sculpture on the bridge. Place: Charles Bridge, the eighth pier from the Old Town end Figures: Matthias Rauchmiller, designer · Jan Brokoff, who carved the wooden model from which the bronze was cast · Matthias of Wunschwitz, donor In 1683, the three-hundredth anniversary of John Nepomuk's traditional martyrdom (1383, the more reliable date is 1393), a bronze statue is set on the eighth pier of the Charles Bridge. It is designed by the Tyrolean Matthias Rauchmiller, modeled in clay in Vienna, and cast in Norimberk by Wolf Hieronymus Heroldt. It depicts Nepomuk with five stars circling his head (for the five Latin letters of tacui, I was silent) and a crucifix in his arms. It is the first statue on the bridge. The bridge has been bare stone for three hundred and twenty-six years. Within forty-one years there will be thirty more, all Baroque, all donated by religious orders, noble families, or guilds in expiation for something. The bridge becomes, in effect, an open-air sermon, walked daily by everyone crossing the Vltava.