650th anniversary of setting the foundation stone
of the Charles Bridge in Prague
Gold commemorative medal 1 Oz
Design : Zbyněk Fojtů , Engraver : Lubomír Lietava

Diameter: 37 mm, Weight: 31.1 g
Thickness: 2 mm, Fineness: 999/1000 Au
The edge ( proof) is soft and it has a serial number stamped on it.
Mintage volume of Proof design is only 650 pcs.
Mintage volume of the common design is 6500 pcs.

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Gold Coin – Numismatics in 2007 will issue a solid gold commemorative medal to commemorate 650 years since the setting of the Charles Bridge foundation stone. The author of the artistic design is the excellent Czech medalist, Mr. Zbyněk Fojtů. Engraving adaptation was performed by Mr. Lubomír Lietava. The obverse side of the coin on the right side bears the depiction of the Czech King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, Charles Bridge, Lesser Town Bridge Towers, and the inscription “1 oz 999,9 Au Karel IV.” stating the weight and medal’s genuineness. Besides the Roman tower, there are insignias of the issuer and mint. On the reverse side of the medal is the captivating depiction of the Old Town Tower in all its details, assay mark and author’s mark. Charles Bridge is portrayed from an overview in its original appearance without the latter sculptor décor. The text “POLOŽENÍ ZÁKLADNÍHO KAMENE KARLOVA MOSTU 1357-2007” (setting of the Charles Bridge foundation stone 1357-2007) copies the medal’s edge.

The medal is issued in double mintage design, which varies in surface design and edge. Traditional design has the same luster of the mintage field and relief and a serrated edge. Medal in the special top design (so called proof), for the demanding collectors, has the coin field polished to a high luster and relief is mat, the edge is soft and it has a serial number stamped on it. Medal has a diameter of 37 mm, weight of 31.107 g / 1 Oz, thickness of 2 mm and genuineness : 999,9/1000 Au


Mintage volume of Proof design is only 650 pcs.
Mintage volume of the common design is 6500 pcs.
 

Charles IV

Charles bridge

CHARLES BRIDGE

It is the oldest bridge in Prague, which is also one of the most beautiful in the world. Originally it was called Prague or Stone and only since the year 1870 it is called Charles. Originally in its place stood a Roman bridge, named after the wife of Vladislav I (1140 – 1172) Judith. It was built in the years 1158 – 1171, in 1272 it was seriously damaged by a flood and later on, on February 3rd 1342, its remains did not withstand the pressure from the ice, wood and other material brought on again by a flood. The destruction of a bridge was in its time considered a national disaster.

For a long time following this catastrophe, only a wooden bridge was temporarily used and only on 9th of July 1357 at 5:31 did the King Charles IV (1346 – 1378) set the founding stone of the new bridge. The date, along with the exact time determination, was selected with regards to the conjunction of Saturn and the Sun, which according to the astrologist was for such an act the most suitable and luckiest moment of the year. The construction was entrusted to a young German architect from Schwäbisch Gmünd Petr Parler and his works, which completed the bridge early on in the 15th century. Its length spans 520m and width is 10m, it lies on 16 pillars, is built from sandstone blocks and enclosed by entry portals with towers, where the Old Town Bridge Tower is also the job of Parler’s works, while the Lesser Town Bridge Towers each come from a different era.


OLD TOWN BRIDGE TOWER

Old Town Bridge Tower is one of the most beautiful architectures in Czech, but also of the European high Gothic style, and also it is one of the excellent connections of function with top esthetic approach. The Tower is famous especially for its unique, very realistically interpreted, sculpture decoration, among which there are the sculptors by the initiators of the tower’s construction. The construction has begun simultaneously with the construction of the bridge, i.e. in the year 1357, and it was apparently completed around the year 1380. The construction was carried out according to the designs of P. Parler and his works, which was working at the time on a series of other buildings in Prague besides the bridge. The tower was damages many a times through the course of the centuries (e.g. in 1648 or 1848) and so in the years 1874 – 1878 the architect Josef Mocker performed its overall restorations. It was at this time that it has received today’s roof and in 1877 the painter Petr Maixner restored and completed the original Gothic paintings of the gate’s passage. The tower has a shape of a two level prism with battlement and a high tent-like roof covered by slate. On the southern part is a prism like annex with a staircase and an own roof, where the entrance to the tower’s levels is placed, and which is concluded with a grotesque figure of a tower keeper from the middle of the 15th century. The tower’s ground level, which is formed in its entire length by a gate with Gothic arcs and a specifically network shaped vault of passage, is on the east side in the direction of Kříženecké Square, decorated with frescos depicting Veraikon with angels, picture of a Barber Surgeon, emblems of a kingfisher in a wreath and above the arc a strip with the coat of arms of Lands of the Bohemian Crown and Prague Towns. The depiction of the kingfisher is found in the tower several more times. It was a coat of arms of the Prague Barber Surgeon Guild, where one of them, named Zuzana, according to the tale enjoyed the great favor from the King Wenceslas IV (1378 – 1419), whom she helped to escape from the Vltava Baths and therefore returned his freedom back to him, which he has lost when, as a result of the Czech Lords revolt, he was taken captive by them. On the first floor are the statues of the tower’s builders Kings Charles IV (1346 - 1378) and Wenceslas IV.

In the middle between both of the figures is a statue of St. Vitus, the bridge’s patron; where on both of his sides are the coats of arms of the Holy Roman Empire and the Bohemian Kingdom. Above St. Vitus is the coat of arms of St. Wenceslas fiery eagle. Along the sides of both rulers are the coats of arms of the Prague’s Old Town and the Margraviate of Moravia. The decoration of the second level is comprised of Saint Adalbert of Prague and Zikmund statues, patrons of the Bohemian Kingdom. On the tower corners are figural consoles with figures of lovers, representing once a nun with a soldier and the second time with a pupil. The western side, i.e. in the direction of the bridge, was decorated in a similar way, but in 1648 the Swedish artillery during the attack on Prague’s Old Town has damaged these decorations to such an extent that it was necessary to remove it. Today there is only a depiction panel here of John the Baptist by Spinetti from the years 1650 - 1653 with the scripture celebrating the heroism of Prague’s Burgess during the siege by the Swedish armies. Another panel, depicting the bridge repairs after the floods of 1784, is found on the side of the tower in the direction of the Knights of the Cross Monastery. The inside of the tower is formed by two levels, where each of them has one room built with a beam ceiling. These rooms were, similarly as the cellars, placed under the pavement of the tower’s passage, used in the past as jail for debtors.

In the year 1621 the Old Town Bridge Tower was provided with a gruesome decoration, which comprised of 12 heads of noblemen, executed for the participation on the revolt of the estates against the Habsburgs in 1618 – 1620. Six were placed on the west and six on the east corner of the tower. They were not removed until 1631.




LESSER TOWN BRIDGE TOWERS

Charles Bridge leads to the arc of the Lesser Town Bridge Towers, where you enter the Lesser Town. The lower tower has a Roman origin and is the remainder of the fortification of the town’s left side from the 2nd quarter of the 12th century and therefore it stood here even before the Judith Bridge was built. In 1591 the tower was reconstructed in a Renaissance fashion, and from this time only the decorative shields and remains of the rusticated stucco have been preserved, furthermore the shape of the windows and portal. On the east side of the tower on the first floor an arenaceous marl relief is fitted, which is an example of the exclusive level of Roman sculpting in Bohemian lands in the 12th century. The relief depicts two life size persons. On the left is a figure of a kneeling lad and on the right a torso of a figure sitting on a throne. The entrance to the tower is from the hallway of a house indication number 56, the former customs house from 1591, where the Bureau of the Prague Bridge and the Caesarean Salt Bureau used to reside. The tower interior is made up of a ground floor and three levels, which are connected by a wooden staircase. Each floor has one room. In places, where the staircase ends, is an entrance to two parallel pointed arcades and on the top edge is fitted with a battlement. The areas of the gate are decorated by coat of arms. In the direction towards the bridge are the coat of arms bearing the Luxembourg Lion, Czech Lion and Moravian Eagle, below them is twice the coat of arms of the Prague’s Old Town. On the other side, in the direction towards the Lesser Town, is the coat of arms of Vratislav, Czech Lion and the coat of arms of Dolní Lužice, under them are the coat of arms of Prague’s Old and Smaller Towns. The higher Bridge Tower is the youngest construction element of the bridge. Its construction started in 1464 and it was financed by the Czech King George of Poděbrady (1458 – 1471). The tower has a prism shape, on the face walls are extra decoratings by alcoves with baldachin roofs. Here most likely was to be a sculptor décor, but it never happened. Architecturally the tower ties into the Old Town Bridge Tower. Today’s appearance was given to it by Josef Mocker in the years 1879 – 1883.

Charles Bridge was always a place that has attracted the fantasy of artist of all trades and also the folk literature has devoted much room in its lore and tales. The most famous lore is the one about the magic sword. Somewhere in its walls lies Bruncvík’s magic sword, no one however knows where. But one day when the Bohemian land is under ultimate assault, supposedly St. Wenceslas will ride out at the front of the Knights of Blaník to help his land and just then and there will his horse trip over a stone on the Charles Bridge, this will become loose and from under will the famous sword of Bruncvík emerge. St Wenceslas will draw the sword and cry out: “To all enemies of the Bohemian land heads down!” And from that time there will be tranquility and peace in the Bohemian lands forever.

CHARLES IV

CHARLES IV(May 14th 1316 Prague – November 29th 1378 Prague) was the eleventh Bohemian King (as Charles I – 1346-1378), King of Lombard (1355), Roman King (1346–1355) and Emperor (1355–1378), King of Burgundy (1365) and Earl of Luxembourg (1346 – 1353) from the House of Luxembourg. Charles IV, baptized as Wenceslaus, was the son of Elisabeth I of Bohemia and John of Luxembourg. As a child he stayed on the French Royal Court with his godfather, who was his uncle, French King Charles IV of France (1322–1328). Here he married Blanche of Valois. In Paris he received extensive education: the future Emperor knew German, French, Latin, and Italian (he learned Bohemian again after his return back to the land in 1333). His teacher was Pierre de Rosieres (later the Pope Clement VI). Charles became the Bohemian king after the death of his father on August 26th 1346. Prague became Charles’ place of residence, the Prague’s New Town was established (March 8th 1348) and a new Prague stone bridge was built (1357-1400), which today bears the name Charles Bridge. Charles IV founded the castle Kartlštejn on June 10th 1348 for the storing of the Empire’s Coronation Jewels. In Rome on April 5th 1355 Charles was crowned the Holy Roman Emperor. His official title was Latin and it sounded like this: Karolus Quartus divina favente clemencia Romanorum imperator semper augustus et Boemie rex.