Bruncvík on the Pillar

On the pier beneath the group of Saint Vincent and Saint Procopius stands the famous statue of Bruncvík, otherwise Roland — an imposing knight with raised sword, whose handsome face looks out with courage and resolve. His left hand rests on a shield bearing the arms of Prague, and at his feet crouches a lion, which probably gave rise to the legends. The present statue is the work of Ludvík Šimek, made in 1886; before it a similar one had stood there from time immemorial, and then a newer one under Ladislaus Jagiellon, but the Swedes shot away its whole upper part in 1648 and the remnant is kept in the city museum. It was the emblem of the town's commercial and customs jurisdiction, a sort of personification of river rights and toll and a sign of heightened protection of the peace — for it was here on the bank of Kampa that goods brought to Prague by river were unloaded. Such columns stand in Bremen and Hamburg and at Devín as well, and the people named them Roland after the famous knight of legend; here, Bruncvík.