Prague, July 9 (CTK) – The medieval Charles Bridge in Prague can stand any flood, its caretaker Jan Zemanek told journalists on Monday within the celebration of the 660th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of the bridge.
“The bridge is prepared for high waters of any speed because all of its pillars are secured in the river in such a way that they are connected with the bedrock,” said Zeman, who is the head of the bridge division of the city’s street maintenance authority.
The pillars are so massive that the water cannot damage them, he said. They were rebuilt after a flood in 1890 undermined them as the foundations of the bridge were only 2.2 metres below the bed of the Vltava river then. Historians do not know why the foundations were so shallow, Zemanek said.
In 1890, the overflowing Vltava and Berounka rivers swept away a lot of various material which piled up near the Kampa island in Prague upstream from Charles Bridge and blocked one third of the river. Due to this, the river flowed in a different way.
“The water took the bed to pieces up to the depth of six metres. The pillars slightly turned and they pulled down the arch of the bridge,” Zemanek said.
Charles Bridge was damaged by flooding already in 1432 when seven of 16 pillars were broken. The repairs took more than 70 years. After the devastating flood in 1890, a provisional footbridge had to be used for two years.
The recent floods that hit the Czech Republic did not damage Charles Bridge. In 2002, flooding caused damage of 27 billion crowns in Prague. Many of the city’s districts were inundated and tens of thousands of people had to be evacuated. In 2013, several southern and northern outskirts of Prague were flooded and brooks running through the city caused a lot of destruction. The total damage was estimated at 2.2 billion crowns.
