Lost angel found in waters beneath Charles Bridge

Czech scuba divers pulled what Czechs would call a "husarsky kousek" or neat trick -last week when - during reconstruction - they discovered an object beneath Prague's historic Charles Bridge that no one expected to find: the torso of a lost angel, part of a Baroque statue which collapsed into the Vltava River more than 200 years ago, when the bridge was damaged by floods. The angel belonged to a grouping of statues, including Saint Wenceslas, which was removed to a depository, where it remains to this day.

Lost angel found in waters beneath Charles Bridge

The torso of a lost angel, photo: CTK

Dana Stehlikova a historian from Prague's National Museum, says the angel found is indeed the original lost in 1784.

"The angel, which weighs 400 kilos when soaked through with water, is almost life-size. Originally, it faced away from Saint Wenceslas. We have a copper engraving from the period which shows the original grouping of statues kept in the depository now. The engraving depicts a different angel than the one we always thought belonged - but we always just assumed the engraver had got it wrong. We now we know that isn't true. We now know that one of the angels in the depository, which replaced the missing one, is wrong."

Says Mrs Stehlikova: such a discovery is highly unusual after so many years gone by.

The torso of a lost angel, photo: CTK

"To find a statue in such good condition after two hundred years is highly unique, especially when compared the floods of 1890. During those floods statues that fell in the water were retrieved within two years - but often in many pieces. To this day we have thirty to fifty pieces we find impossible to reassemble in any way."

Which doesn't guarantee that the reconstruction of the Wenceslas grouping will be possible either: for the moment the number one priority remains: simply ensuring the torso survives.

"Because the statue is completely waterlogged it needs to be carefully dried; it needs to be dried in stages, so that the sandstone doesn't come apart."

Certainly it's not everyday one finds an angel in one's midst: art historians and history buffs will now look forward to how successfully the statue can be saved, and whether plans will emerge to restore it completely and return it to its original grouping.