Prague will preserve the Vyšehrad railway bridge by moving it to a new spot

An uneasy balancing act between infrastructural development and heritage conservation

The City of Prague announced that it has decided to move the old Vyšehrad railway bridge to the suburban district of Modřany further south, where it will serve as a footbridge for pedestrians and cyclists instead of trains.

This is the latest chapter in an ongoing saga that has put up a puzzling challenge for the authorities over what to do with the iconic bridge, which is both a national monument of early 20th-century industrial heritage and a functioning railway infrastructure that is in urgent need of repair.

The infrastructural facility is one of the iconic sights of Prague

Prague residents have grown very much accustomed to the iron profile of the bridge featuring several elegant arches over the Vltava River in the historic heart of the city. The Vyšehrad railway bridge was put into operation in 1872. At the start of the 20th century, it was replaced by a bridge that spans the Vltava to this day. 

The wear and tear of time, however, has worsened its condition to the point that now only one train set can pass over it at a speed of a maximum of 20 km/h. This, however, is highly insufficient to meet the modern public transport needs of Prague residents.

Initially, there was a proposal to redesign the bridge and widen it to include three railway tracks, however, critics said that would essentially mean destroying the bridge to build a new one as the old one couldn’t be widened.

There are voices of criticism even against the most recent decision to move the bridge with the argument that this is just a trap to quiet down the alleviating voices before serving them a fait accompli of a bridge that cannot be reconstructed in a new place. It remains to be seen how this will end.

While the exact timeline for the relocation has yet to be determined, the Railway Administration (SŽ) is currently seeking designers for the new bridge. Construction is planned for 2027 to 2029