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Charles Bridge to get 24/7 watch

New cameras may quell vandalism on city's historic span

By Kimberly Ashton
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
March 21st, 2007 issue

KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
The statue of Saint Cross, or Calvary, was vandalized in January.
Two months after a high-profile vandalism incident on Charles Bridge, police are stepping up surveillance of the landmark with plans to install 10 new security cameras before tourism peaks this summer.
The cameras will be posted on the bridge towers by the end of March, according to Deputy Mayor Rudolf Blažek, and will monitor it 24 hours a day. The city will also station four officers on the bridge during peak season.
Now, just two police officers patrol the bridge with the aid of two outdated cameras that watch over it.
“It is not sufficient,” Blažek said. “There have been tens of stone fingers of saints stolen, heads of cherubs, and other parts of the sculptures.  Out of 31 sculptures, there are 14 originals on the bridge, 18 copies were more or less damaged.”
Keeping an eye on the approximately 4 million tourists who cross the medieval bridge every year won’t be easy, but, with the new cameras, police can respond to acts of vandalism within minutes.
“The output from the cameras will be monitored from 5 stations of the police of the Czech Republic and city police. The Malostranská division of the city police will monitor only the outputs from these 10 cameras nonstop,” Blažek said.
Ondřej Šefců, overseer of the National Heritage Institute and lead architect of the bridge’s reconstruction, hails the plan, says that press reports claiming he was against it were wrong. He will supervise the installation of the cameras to ensure they don’t detract from the appearance of the 14th-century bridge.
“The cameras can discourage people from hurting Charles Bridge,” said Šefců. “It is going to work as a filter. Also, the tapes from cameras can provide evidence for an investigation. This is definitely a positive thing; it is a reaction to the behavior of society.”
Widespread problem
That behavior — vandalism — is probably the work of drunks who roam across the bridge late at night, according to Jiří Wolf, a City Hall spokesman. Despite the city’s ubiquitous vandalism, which includes graffiti, Wolf said authorities only manage to charge a few people with the crime every year.
The project will cost between 3 million and 4 million Kč ($140,000–190,000), Blažek said. As expensive as that may be, it’s only a fraction of what the city pays to repair the damage culprits cause every year.
“Vandalism is a long-term problem in Prague. We spend tens of millions a year to fix the damages,” Wolf said.
Last year alone the city paid 650,000 Kč to repair Charles Bridge, according to Blažek.
January’s incident in particular drew widespread media attention, and shined a spotlight on the attacks the bridge’s statues have endured over the years.
Parts of a 17th-century Hebrew inscription arcing over the statue of Saint Cross, or Calvary, went missing. Police divers found three fragments of it in the Vltava River.  
They also found a 19th-century ceremonial sword, a piece of the St. Norbert statue, a light from the statue of Jesus Christ the Savior, fragments of an old gas lamp and other statue debris. More artifacts are probably still buried beneath the river, Blažek said.
Divers didn’t find the cherub statue that had accompanied the Madonna with St. Bernard. They finished their work — which Blažek said cost the city nothing since it was part of police training — March 12.
Eighteen of the span’s 31 statues are partially damaged. Indeed, the entire bridge is due for a makeover. The city is planning a 250 million Kč reconstruction to begin this spring.
Naďa Černá and Hela Balínová contributed to this report.

Kimberly Ashton can be reached at kashton@praguepost.com


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