Prague's bridges over the Vltava

From the stone laid for Charles IV in 1357 to a footbridge finished in 2020 to replace one that fell into the river, the Vltava crossings record what Prague needed and who was in charge when it got built: freight lines laid by people forced out of their professions, a Cubist deck renamed six times in forty years, an iron suspension span dismantled and poured again in concrete. Lengths, spans and opening dates here come from the bridges' own registers and from the engineers who signed the drawings.

Places in this collection

  • Trojská lávka — A pedestrian and cycle footbridge opened on 23 October 2020 between Troja and Císařský ostrov. It replaced a simple suspension footbridge o…
  • most Barikádníků — A wide concrete beam bridge of 1980, 221m long, carrying three lanes of the inner ring road between Holešovice and Troja. It takes its name…
  • Most Závodu míru — The first bridge to cross the Vltava inside Prague's city limits as the river flows north, at Zbraslav in the far south. It opened in 1964,…
  • Čech Bridge — Built between 1905 and 1908 and named after the writer Svatopluk Čech, it is the shortest of the central bridges at 169m and the only arch…
  • Troja Bridge — Opened in 2014 between Holešovice and Troja, 262m long and 36m wide, and the only bridge over the Vltava in Prague that rests on no pier in…
  • Libeň Bridge — Built 1924-1928 to designs by Pavel Janák, concrete, five arches, and one of the few bridges anywhere raised in the Cubist idiom. Counting…
  • Negrelli Viaduct — Built between 1846 and 1850 on the Olomouc to Dresden line, with 87 stone arches running over a kilometre from Masaryk Station across Štvan…
  • Hlavka Bridge — Prague's first reinforced concrete bridge, built in stages: an iron span from Karlín to Štvanice island in 1908-1910, then the section from…
  • Štefánik Bridge — The reinforced concrete bridge opened in 1951, 263m long and 24.4m wide, on the line of the Franz Joseph suspension bridge of 1868, once th…
  • Mánes Bridge — Built between 1911 and 1914 and formally opened in 1916, 186m long and 16m wide, in a style that sits between Art Nouveau and Czech Cubism.…
  • Jirásek Bridge — Construction began in 1929 and the reinforced concrete bridge was completed in 1933, 310m long and 21m wide, named after the writer Alois J…
  • Railway Bridge — Built in 1871-72 as a single-track link between what is now Prague Main Station and the West Station, and rebuilt as the double-track struc…
  • Barrandov Bridge — The southern half dates from 1983 and the northern half from 1988, giving a concrete deck 352m long and between 40 and 55m wide with eight…
  • Braník Bridge — A double-track freight railway bridge begun in 1949 and finished in 1955, 910m long and 14m wide, linking the Smíchov and Vršovice railway…
  • Palacký Bridge — Opened in 1878 to designs by Bedřich Münzberger with engineering by Josef Reiter, and built of granite blocks in blue, red and white. It ru…
  • Charles Bridge — Charles IV laid the foundation stone in 1357 for a replacement to the Judith Bridge, which floods had destroyed; work continued until 1402.…

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