Prague has many silent inhabitants carved in stone or wrought in metals. Some of them are real people from the past, others are mythical characters. Others are anonymous and adorn buildings or silently watch over in quiet corners of the city. On the Charles Bridge there is a statue of St. John of Nepomuk, a parson who refused to betray a secret of Queen Sophia to the king Wenceslas IV. Guarding this secret meant his torture and death. There is a brass cross with five stars at the place on the parapet where he was thrown to the river to his death from the Charles Bridge in 1393. If you place your hand on the cross so that every finger touches one star, you can make a wish and it will be fulfilled. People also touch the relief on the statue for luck. The Bruncvik statue with its golden sword, a coat-of-arms and a lion was made according to a fragment of the original statue, which was damaged during the Thirty Years´ War. Bruncvik was said to be accompanied by a lion on his adventures abroad. His miraculous sword killed anybody on his demand. St. Ludmila and little Wenceslas St. Ludmila statue has a veil in her hand, which symbolizes her death: she was strangled. Also the spooky hooded figure of the Chromy statue represents Il Commendatore from the opera “Don Giovanni”. These are just some of the many statues in Prague!