Lesser Town Bridge Towers

Beside the arch stand towers from different Prague eras. The low Romanesque one remained from Judith Bridge, while the tall Gothic one was built in the time of Jiří of Poděbrady. Together they guarded the western entrance to the only permanent crossing over the Vltava: on both sides of the river there were then separate fortified towns, each with its own walls, gates, and guards. The difference in stone and height preserves the arrangement of the checkpoint through which the guards locked the route and residents passed from one town to another.

On the night of July twenty-fifth to twenty-sixth, sixteen forty-eight, the former imperial officer Arnošt Ottowalský led a Swedish detachment to a lightly guarded section of Prague's wall. Military service had been his trade, but after a severe injury he left the army and considered the compensation he received insufficient. Ottowalský offered the enemy his knowledge of the fortifications, hoping to obtain what he had not gained from his former commanders.

The men of General Hans Christoff von Königsmarck climbed over the wall near Strahov Gate, killed the guards, and let the main forces in. They then descended through Hradčany and Lesser Town. Ottowalský's detachment occupied the Lesser Town Bridge Towers: it was through this arch that the only permanent crossing to the other bank of the Vltava passed.

Prague then consisted of several fortified towns. Lesser Town and Old Town had their own walls, gates, and guards, so the bridge could be locked from both ends. The towers here served as the western lock of the crossing. The low Romanesque tower came to Charles Bridge from the earlier Judith Bridge; the tall one appeared under King Jiří of Poděbrady after fourteen sixty-four. Their different ages did not prevent them from forming a single fortified entrance.

The Swedes almost managed to capture all of Prague in one rush. An ensign fleeing from the left bank managed to cross the bridge and raise the alarm. Mikuláš Turek, the head of Old Town, called out the city militia. His men occupied the tower at the opposite end of the bridge, lowered the iron grille, and raised a barricade behind it. Between the two gates remained a long open passage that the attackers would have to cross under fire.

Königsmarck allowed the soldiers to plunder the captured Lesser Town. Residents gave up money for their release, property was carried out of palaces and monasteries, and collections from Prague Castle were sent along the Vltava and the Elbe. Ottowalský received a large reward and Swedish nobility. But the loot remained on the western bank: the Swedish detachments were unable to force their way across the bridge. Old Town was defended by soldiers, townspeople, and a university company of students and teachers.

The siege continued for several more months. On October thirty-first, the defenders learned that the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years' War, had been signed a week earlier. The Swedish units stopped their assaults and withdrew from the right bank.

On the side of the Old Town Bridge Tower that faces this way, the former Gothic statues are gone: Swedish cannonballs destroyed them. The distance from the captured part of Prague to the part that was held then is exactly the same as it is now from this arch to the gates at the other end of Charles Bridge.