by Luke Maguire Armstrong
The “Devil” has died. Or at least the one who lived on Prague’s Charles Bridge has. His death adds another chapter to the dense history the bridge has shared. Before going into who the devil was, it is best to understand the bridge he made his home for years.
Twenty-eight statues, dating from 1628 and built by some of history’s most talented sculptors, overlook those crossing the Charles Bridge. At the end of the bridge rises the Mala Strana Bridge Tower, leading to a district of the same name. Since the bridge was ordered built by Charles IV in 1357, it has connected Prague across the Vltata River. During its 600 years, it has seen good and bad, angels and demons. Of the 17 bridges connecting the river, it is the oldest, standing because of the genius of its design.
The bridge has collected the dust of invaders and friends for centuries. It was crossed by Catholic Hapsburgs from 1618 to 1648 as they battled and finally defeated disagreeing Protestants. The victors crossed The Charles carrying booty after they plundered the collections of the recently diseased King Rudolph II.
The bridge has also felt the steps of moved masses coming from Mozart’s premier of “Don Giovanni.” Perhaps the happy tempo of these steps felt similar to those that walked the bridge in 1918 when Czech people crossed it — citizens of a sovereign country for the first time in their long history.
In only two decades the light steps of freedom were replaced by the heavy steps of German troops, occupying the city for seven years until 1945. Freedom from Germany lasted only until 1948, when Soviet tanks left deep tread marks on the bridge and country.
Then came The Devil. No one knows exactly when he first came, but everyone agrees it was over 10 years ago. On the edge of the bridge he set up shop where he thought he belonged, next to the other artists selling their creations to eager tourists in front of the Mala Strana tower.
The Devil, whose real name was Antonin, was not of their cut. While other artists came selling pictures of Prague, Antonin painted self-portraits depicted as the devil on the Charles Bridge. Every day he set up shop wearing red devil horns to paint and to sell. Though his paintings had their differences, his subject never changed. Always himself, always as the devil, always set on the Charles Bridge.
Antonin’s eccentricity led to his becoming a local legend. The folklore has it that the “Devil Man” used to be a brilliant professor who one day left his old life behind and came to the Charles Bridge where he stayed till his death.
Did he believe he was the devil? Why the Charles Bridge? Was it all a ploy for the money or was their some higher reason for what he did? I don’t know. And I won’t know. When I set out to find him and ask, he was not to be found. The other vendors informed me with long faces that he recently passed away.
Though gone, his memory will not soon fade. In his own richly eccentric way, he left his mark on the bridge, the city, and on the millions of people who crossed the bridge and, upon seeing him in his devil horns, wondered, “What the hell?”
It reminds me of something a friend posted on my Facebook wall. “Hundred of years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove, but the world may be different because I did something so baffling crazy that my ruins become a tourist attraction.” Whatever brought Antonin to the bridge, he attracted tourists in a way few of us ever will.
Prague Walking Tour of Old Town, Charles Bridge and Prague Castle
If You Go:
♦ For information about cultural information, events, restaurants, shops and sightseeing, see www.pragueexperience.com
♦ For information about backpacking see, www.st-christophers.co.uk/travel-tips/stories/europe/czech-republic/surviving-in-prague
♦ For information on what on what do while you’re there, visit www.myczechrepublic.com/prague
Private Food Tour With a Local in Prague
About the author:
Luke Maguire Armstrong (www.lukespartacus.com) was a baby, who became a boy, who became a man. After finishing degrees in philosophy and English abroad in Chile, Luke backpacked from Chile to Guatemala, where he spent four years as director of development organization Nuestros Ahijados. His work to battle infant malnutrition was featured on the ABC News Global Health Special: Be the Change, Save a Life. He is the author of “iPoems for the Dolphins to Click Home About” (2010) and “How We Are Human” (2012). Follow @lukespartacus.
Photo Credits:
Most photos were by Luke Maguire Armstrong. Permission to use the Devil Man photo goes to Cara and Pam at www.thegrumpygoatgallery.blogspot.com
It appeared that he was a real person, one Charles de Batz, who joined the Musketeers in 1632, using his mother’s maiden name, D’Artagnan. There, the resemblance ends, for Dumas fictionalised and romanticised his character heavily.
The reason for this is its important strategic position on the River Maas, where the Romans, in their progress across Europe, built a bridge, around which grew a town which they called Mosae Trajectum, or ‘Maas Crossing’, from which the name Maastricht is derived.
But, the French came again; briefly during the War of Austrian Succession in 1748, and, for a longer time, by the forces of Napoleon in 1794, who regarded it as a part of France until its restoration to the Netherlands in 1815.
Perhaps it was this central position which led to its being chosen as the meeting place for Europe’s leaders in 1992. They discussed the mechanism by which the European Community became the European Union, and laid the groundwork for Europe’s common currency. At the end of their conference, they signed the Treaty of European Union, better known as the Maastricht Treaty.
In 1418 Henry the Navigator became Governor of the Algarve, although at the time he was only plain Prince Henry. He founded a School of Navigation in the town of Sagres, which helped to put Portugal on the map in terms of seafaring and plotting long voyages on the ocean waves. Sadly the school was destroyed by the army of Sir Francis Drake in 1587. Henry the Navigator’s other achievements were to discover new territories in Cape Verde, Madeira, Sierra Leone and the Azores.
Sun washed Arles comfortably incorporates its dynamic vestiges of Rome into an appeal which draws throngs for a wealth of experiences. To all that is southern France, the food, wine, music, ambience, is also added the unique Van Gogh walking tour which takes toes wandering through town and discovering sites where Van Gogh created many of his greatest paintings.
From its earliest days it was a haven for Celts worshiping at its natural springs. It became a Roman colony around 28 BC and bestowed upon it were edifices yet existing and functioning. The hand of Rome lay heavy upon this city.
Though you cannot see it from the tower there is a seemingly unimportant ruin within the old city. A ruin that is the terminus of an amazing aqueduct system which once brought life giving waters 51 kilometres away from Uzes. Its most compelling attribute is the UNESCO World Heritage site at Pont du Garde. Here the aqueduct spanned the wide valley of the River Garde and though water no longer courses through its arteries it remains as a stunningly awe inspiring site. Its three arches rise high over the valley where once 200 million litres of water per day passed from Uzes to thirsty Nimes. It is claimed the system may have remained in use into the 9th century. Its continued use as a toll bridge helped the incredible structure survive. Today over 1.3 million visitors annually are drawn to the site and its associated museum.
There, in that church crypt, is most of the royalty that led the Holy Roman, and Austro-Hungarian empires. The history of those several hundred years, 1618 to 2011 (the last Habsburg to make it in was laid to rest in July 2011), shaped Europe and the Americas. It wasn’t a well-defined, clearly delineated empire that the Habsburgs governed. At various times they ruled 44 nations, duchies, and a variety of ethnic gatherings; some were part of the Holy Roman Empire, some were not – such was the political jigsaw puzzle of Europe back then.
Anna, in her will, written in 1617, set aside funds to begin building that crypt. Good thing she did – she died a year later. Her husband died the following year. Politics and war put off the crypt building until 1633. Their burials were the beginning of a practice that reached its royal conclusion this year. On July 4, 2011 Otto von Habsburg, also known as Otto of Austria, “former head of the House of Habsburg and Sovereign of the Order of the Golden Fleece (1922–2007) and former Crown Prince (1916–1918) and, by pretence, Emperor-King (from 1922), of Austria-Hungary—or formally, of Austria, Hungary and Bohemia, of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria and Illyria, and of Jerusalem…” (There’s more, but you get the idea.) — died. He was 98. And that should pretty much do it for the House of Habsburg.
From 1618 on, casket after casket was put in place, making it necessary to expand, creating rooms for more Habsburg royalty. One huge room was designed just to hold the gigantic, highly embellished tomb of Maria Theresia, probably the most famous of all the Habsburgs. The artwork on Maria’s tomb is astonishing. The practice of interring organs in one church, the heart in another, and the body in the crypt of the Capuchin church began with King Ferdinand IV of the Romans in 1654. He left orders that his body was to go to the Capuchins; his heart to Augustinerkirche; and the urn with his viscera to Vienna’s St. Stephens. A few urns remain with the Capuchins. It’s tad ghoulish, to be sure, but a custom – unique to the Habsburgs – that exists to this day. The last three-stages of separation took place July of 2010 for Otto von Habsburg.
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