Charles Bridge Museum, Museum at the Old Town end of Charles Bridge, Prague, Czech Republic

The Charles Bridge Museum is a collection housed in a historic building next to the famous medieval stone bridge spanning the Vltava River in Prague. The rooms display original artifacts, construction models, and replicas of bridge sculptures that explain how this structure was built and why it matters to the city.

The museum was founded in 2007 by Zdeněk Bergman, who saw that Charles Bridge lacked a presentation of its own. It occupies the oldest part of the Crusaders of the Red Star monastery, established in 1252 at the Old Town end of the bridge. What began as an exhibition on bridge building grew into displays on the Judith and Charles bridges and the order.

The museum is run by the Pražské Benátky company and takes part in the annual Svatojánské slavnosti NAVALIS, a revived Baroque festival for St John of Nepomuk. Each year about 10,000 spectators watch from the banks and from boats on the Vltava below Charles Bridge, the place of his death. Temporary exhibitions present Christmas cribs and Easter traditions.

Plan to spend at least an hour exploring the different rooms and displays at a comfortable pace. The museum is easy to walk to and sits right beside the famous bridge in the heart of the old city center.

The museum's scientific team studies stone-working and traceology, cooperating with the Centre for Ancient Heritage on the Etruscan city near Tarquinia and with the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics on stone surface topography. It also publishes books, including a 2024 iconography of Charles Bridge by Jan Royt and Vojtěch Pokorný.