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Brunswick: Prague knight guarding the river
Prague and surrounding
Monuments, Sculptures
Monuments, Sculptures

Walk through the center of Prague without meeting a knight? Almost impossible! The stone knight, that is called Brunswick by the people of Prague's, is the "otherworldly" sculpture on the historical Charles bridge. Otherworldly – for the only one located on the other side of the parapets, on the pylon of the bridge, at a height of several meters above the level of the river. Historians suggest that the stone knight may have "lived" in this place even before the Charles bridge itself appeared, and was part of the predecessor bridge. Today's Brunzvik was created by the sculptor Ludvik Szymek in 1884.

So who is this "knight who guards the river"? Was it a real person, or just a character in the legends that the Prague and Czech history is full of?

The Czechs consider the prototype of the stone knight of king Przemysl II, who did a lot for the Czech lands in the XIII century. Perhaps this is not Brunzvik at all: historically, the bridge could stand a column of Roland – a symbol of city rights. Perhaps, even before the bridges, there was a pagan sanctuary, and with the arrival of Christianity, people left a mark on the sacred place. Even today, many claim that the point where the knight is installed is energetically active, with positive force; and the column supporting the knight is a symbolic energy column. Perhaps the knight guards the source that gives Charles bridge a special, almost magical power. Everyone can accept the appropriate version for themselves.

Another mystery of Bruncvik – his sword, a kind of energy beam that protects the bridge, and Prague. Czech legends claim that the miracle sword, which itself punishes enemies, was immured in the masonry of the bridge when the knight returned to Prague. The sword will appear again only for the protection of the Czech people if it is very bad: the horse of St. Wenceslaus, the patron of the Czech lands, will beat the horseshoe where this powerful chivalric attribute is stored.

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Praskovia Ko

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