Čech Bridge

Downstream the river this is the tenth bridge in Prague. It is the only such a large Art Nouveau bridge in the country thanks to which it has a status of a protected technical monument. Th width of 16 meters and a length of 169 meters make it the shortest bridge in Prague.

The bridge was built between 1905 - 1908, designed by engineers George Soukup, Vaclav Trča, Francis Mencl and architect Jan Koula. The construction of the bridge coincided with the clearance of the Jewish Quarter and should have been part of the never realized route from Wenceslas Square through Old Town Square, Parizska street and Letna to Prague Castle.

The Čech Bridge is most notable thanks to is art decoration. On the glazed iron lanterns on the tops of the columns there are 4 bronze sculptures by Antonín Popp. On the pillar headers there are bronze statues of torchbearers and six-head creatures with Prague coat of arms. The pillars were decorated with festoons of bronze and granite.

Apart from the time between the years 1940 to 1945, when the bridge was renamed to the Mendel Bridge, it has always held the name of a Czech writer Svatopluk Čech.