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The Lesser Town Bridge Tower

The basic information about the Lesser Town Bridge Tower

The Lesser Town Bridge Tower is the youngest part of the Charles Bridge. The idea of its construction came from the Czech king George of Podebrady (Jiří z Poděbrad) in 1464. It was built at the place of the ancient bridge tower from the Romanesque period. With the Lesser Town Bridge Tower, a smaller tower called the Judith Tower was built. The project of the tower corresponds with the project of the Ota´s Old Town Bridge Tower, but its decoration is less rich – there is no exacting sculpture decoration. Even though that fact, the Tower is a very significant architectural feature of the Gothic Prague. 

In 1503, there was a vast fire in the Lesser Town and the part of town and the Tower were seriously damaged. All the interiors of the Tower had to be constructed again. Formerly, the tower was used as a part of the fortification, later it was used as a store house. In 19th century, there was a tinsmith´s workshop in the ground floor of the Tower.

The current image of the Tower was created in the period from 1879 to 1888 and its architect is Josef Mocker. The Tower is built from stones, the inner walls are from martile and bricks. There are 5 floors in the Tower. In the groud floor you will find an arched Renaissance vault that was created after the fire in 1503. The other floors have flat ceillings and wooden floors.

In the first floor, there is situated the terrace of the gate and in the last floor, there is the terrace of the Tower. The whole tower ends by very unique roof frame that was created after year 1526. The roof frame is one of the oldest in the Czech Republic. The roof is made of slaty tiles.

The tower is 43,5 metres high and the terrace is situated in 26 metres above ground.

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