Valuable inscription lay under the Charles Bridge

About 4 million people visit Charles Bridge in Prague every year. The statues on Charles Bridge, many of which are still original, are often damaged by vandals. The last case happened last week when an unknown vandal destroyed the inscription on the statue The Crucifix and Calvary.

Yesterday from 9 a.m. groups of scuba divers were searching for the remains of the inscription. They were lucky to find 3 parts of it. They will continue today to find the rest. Since the inscription lay on the bottom of the Vltava river, it is likely, that the inscription was not damaged because of religious reasons.

There is not a single statue on Charles Bridge that has not been damaged yet. Many times tourists take a part of the statue as a souvenir or for gold it contains. Mostly stolen or damaged objects are toes of the statues and heads of angels. There will be probably more patrols and better camera system to fight the vandalism soon.