In 1357, King Charles IV reputedly laid the first stone of Charles Bridge himself. For nearly five centuries it was the only way across the Vltava, making Prague a trading crossroads between eastern and western Europe.

The bridge has survived a remarkable procession of disasters. Swedish musket and cannon fire pockmarked its Old Town tower during the final battle of the Thirty Years' War in 1648. In 1890, a flood toppled three arches and their Baroque statues into the river; repairs took two years. Of the bridge's thirty statues, the most famous depicts St John of Nepomuk, a vicar-general tortured to death and hurled from the parapet by a vengeful king. Touch it, tradition says, and you'll return to Prague.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours cross the bridge on Royal Route walks, tracing its seven centuries of sieges, floods and martyrdoms, and the Headless Horseman legend that still haunts nearby Nerudova Street.