The statues that now ornament the bridge formed no part of the original structure. As can be seen in ancient engravings, a crucifix only stood on the bridge at first. Rudolph erected statues of the Madonna and of St. John, and the others were gradually added, principally during the period of Catholic re-action in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. There are now thirty statues of unequal value, fifteen on each side of the bridge. It may be of interest to give a list of these statues, beginning with those that are to the right of the visitor who crosses the bridge from the old town into the Malá Strana:—
1. St. Bernard (1709), by Jäckel.
2. St. Dominicus and Thomas Aquinas (1708), by Jäckel.
3. A bronze-gilt statue of the Crucifixion, with statues of the Virgin Mary and St. John.
4. St. John the Baptist (1853), by J. Max.
5. St. Ignacius of Loyola (1711), by Ferdinand Prokov; a foundation of the Jesuit College of Prague.
6. The Holy Trinity (1706), also by Prokov. Between this group and the next one, a cross and tablet mark the spot where St. Nepomuk was thrown into the river.
7. SS. Norbert, Wenceslas and Sigismund (1853), by J. Max.
8. St. John of Nepomuk, cast in bronze at Nüremberg in 1683, after a model of J. Prokov.
9. St. Anthony of Padua (1707), by Ulrich Mayer.