The Empty Bridge

JAN 01 2020 · 12:00

Charles Bridge in March 2020. The stone span Charles IV laid in 1357 stands empty for the first time in any living memory. Place: Charles Bridge · Old Town Square · Prague Castle (closed) Figures: Andrej Babiš, prime minister · Adam Vojtěch, health minister · the absent tourists On March 12, 2020, the Czech government declares a state of emergency. On March 14, retail closes except for essentials. On March 16, the borders close to foreign nationals, and the order to wear masks in public places takes effect, the first such order in any EU country. On March 19, masks become mandatory outdoors as well. The tourism economy that has rebuilt the Old Town since the early 1990s is suspended in forty-eight hours. Photographs taken from the Old Town bridge tower on the morning of March 16 show Charles Bridge empty for the first time in living memory. There are no statues being photographed, no portrait painters, no buskers, no Vietnamese cellists, no school groups. The bridge has not looked like this since the Swedish siege of 1648, and even then there were soldiers.