Statue of Saint Joseph, Charles Bridge

The Statue of Saint Joseph, Charles Bridge is one of the Baroque-era sculptures lining Prague's Charles Bridge, standing on the bridge's south parapet close to its Old Town end. It shows Saint Joseph holding the young Jesus, and while the theme has occupied this exact spot on the bridge since the early 18th century, the figure visitors see today dates from the mid-19th century.

Where exactly on the bridge does it stand?

The statue is set on the south balustrade of Charles Bridge, in the section nearer the Old Town, at coordinates 50.086364, 14.41189. Charles Bridge links Prague's Old Town with Malá Strana (the Lesser Town) and has carried its distinctive procession of statues along both parapets - north and south - for centuries. The Saint Joseph statue is one of the figures set along the south side.

Who does the statue depict?

The sculpture shows Saint Joseph cradling the infant Jesus in his arms - a devotional motif repeated in various forms across Christian art, and one of several such family and patron-saint scenes distributed along the length of the bridge.

Who made the current statue, and when?

The figure in place today is the work of Josef Max, a 19th-century Prague sculptor, and it was installed in 1854. It was commissioned by Josef Bergmann, a Prague wholesale merchant who paid for the work. Max was among the sculptors active in the 19th-century campaign to renew and replace older statues on Charles Bridge as some of the original Baroque figures fell into disrepair.

What stood on this spot before?

Before Max's statue, the same location had held an earlier sculpture on the identical theme - Saint Joseph with the Christ Child - carved in 1706 by Jan Brokoff, a member of the prominent Prague sculpting family responsible for several of the bridge's figures. That 18th-century statue was damaged by gunfire, a fate it shared with the neighbouring Pietà, and it was eventually moved to the lapidarium of the National Museum in Prague, where damaged originals removed from the bridge are kept. Its place on the bridge was taken in 1854 by the new statue from Josef Max, which still stands there today.

How does it fit into the wider statuary of Charles Bridge?

Charles Bridge carries around thirty statues and sculptural groups in total, most of them Baroque works commissioned mainly during the 17th and 18th centuries by burghers, religious orders and noble patrons as votive figures of saints. Over time, a number of the originals - worn by weather, damp or damaging events such as gunfire - were replaced with copies or entirely new works, as happened with the Saint Joseph statue. The result is an open-air gallery of sculpture spanning several centuries, from the earliest Baroque commissions to 19th-century replacements.

Frequently asked questions

Is this the same Statue of Saint Joseph as the one near the Aldermen's Steps in Hradčany? No. That is a separate, earlier statue - a 1714 Baroque figure of Saint Joseph of uncertain authorship, standing at the foot of the Radnické schody (Aldermen's Steps) in Hradčany after being moved there in 1820 from Hradčany Square. The statue described here stands on Charles Bridge itself, was carved by Josef Max, and dates from 1854.

Who paid for the statue on the bridge? Josef Bergmann, a Prague wholesale merchant, commissioned Josef Max to create the figure in 1854.

Was there an earlier Saint Joseph statue at this spot on the bridge? Yes - a 1706 statue by Jan Brokoff stood here previously, until it was damaged by gunfire and moved to the National Museum's lapidarium.

Which side of the bridge is the statue on? The south side, in the section closer to the Old Town end of Charles Bridge.

How many statues are there on Charles Bridge in total? Around thirty, mostly Baroque works added between the 17th and 19th centuries.