The Štěchovice Bridge still amazes with the elegance of its shapes even after 80 years

Prague - The reinforced concrete bridge, which on May 20, 1939, connected Štěchovice with the opposite Brunšov at the site of a former ferry across the Vltava River, was considered a technical marvel at that time. The elegant structure with hollow arches and a suspended deck was built by the experienced construction company of entrepreneur Karel Kindl, starting in August 1937 - and it was completed in a year and three quarters.

The author of the design, which still impresses with the grace of its 114-meter-long arch, was architect Miloslav Klement (1886-1969). He was also recognized in the field, having to his credit the first Czechoslovak reinforced concrete bridge in Týnec nad Sázavou and a similar structure over the Orlice River in Hradec Králové. In addition to bridges, which he worked on as an employee of the Ministry of Public Works, Klement also worked at Prague Castle, where at the end of the 1920s he helped to cover the archaeological finds there.

He also designed the presidential bath and participated in numerous other modifications of the Castle, but the Štěchovice bridge is probably Klement's most famous construction. At the end of World War II, it narrowly escaped destruction, as the Germans were preparing to mine it, but the holes for the explosives remained empty. The bridge also survived the devastating floods of 2002, and this masterpiece of Czech bridge engineering, which was named after Dr. Edvard Beneš after the war (but lost that name after February 1948, regaining it in 1990), still stands today.