The bridges of Roudnice

The Roudnice stone bridge was the third oldest stone bridge in Bohemia (after Judith's bridge in Prague and the bridge in Písek).

It was built at the expense of the Bishop of Prague, John IV. from Dražice, who conceives the idea of connecting the two banks of the Elbe probably during his stay in Avignon in the south of France at the papal court, if not earlier. The construction of the bridge was completed in 1340. Master Vilém is considered to be the builder, under whose supervision two pillars and one vault were completed in 1333. After that, Master Vilém returned to his homeland and local builders continued the construction.

The first test came shortly after its completion. During the flood in the spring of 1342, icebergs were carried by the water, which, for example, destroyed the Judith Bridge in Prague. Roudnice bridge withstanded flood, but for the next 200 years we have only very vague information about it. We know that the soldiers of Jan Žižka from Trocnov or Jiří from Poděbrady crossed over it. The first exact report is from 1540, when most of it was probably already considerably attritioned, and a reconstruction was needed. It was led by Karel Dubanský of Dubany. Other reports of repairs of the bridge are from the years 1575-1592, when Vilém of Rožmberk worked here. Later, from most of the repairs in the years 1621-1623, when the owner of the Roudnice estate, Zdeněk Vojtěch of Lobkowicz, residing in Vienna at the time, instructed through his correspondents the governor of Roudnice to take care of the re-establishment of this important road. The sources mention other extensive spring floods from 1625. The Roudnice bridge survived these as well. We need to relize that during less than a century, the bridge was strongly affected by floods, which were certainly more frequently than now. It had to repaired three times. At that time, perhaps part of the bridge was already wooden.

The bridge played a very important role in the following years. During the Thirty Years' War it was considered one of the most important strategic points in Bohemia. Eventually, it also became a victim of its military significance. First, during the Saxon invasion of 1631, the wooden parts of the bridge were burned and the work of destruction was completed in 1634 by Swedish Marshal Banner, when it was completely destroyed.

The new Roudnice bridge was not built until 1906-1910. At the same time, the water management project the river Elbe was carried out, the bridgeheads were modified, which significantly affected the appearance of the city on the left bank. An access ramp was built under the chateau, on which a house for the collector of toll stands, and memorial plaques were placed here. A statue of Miss Bohemia and the Czech Lion was erected opposite the house, symbolizing the then very important position of Roudnice on the national Czech-German border.