Monument to Charles IV of Luxembourg - Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, King of Germany and the Czech Republic, located on Krzhizhovnitskaya Square (or Crusader Square), near the Charles Bridge. Charles (Karel) IV, who was born in Prague into the royal family of the Luxembourg dynasties (by father) and Přemyslids (by mother), was an outstanding statesman who became king in 1346 at the age of thirty. King Charles IV was not a conqueror, but a pacifist, having established the Union of Zemstvo Peace, whose members pledged not to wage internecine wars in Europe.
He supported the new and advanced, patronized the sciences and arts, built castles and cities. Charles IV founded a university in Prague in 1348, opened a health resort in Karlovy Vary, built a castle in Hradcany and Karlstejn Castle, a bridge over the Vltava River in Prague, now known as Karlov, laid vineyards in the Czech Republic. In 2005, Charles IV received the most votes, among 100 proposed candidates, in the final of the television poll-show "The Greatest Czech".
The bronze monument to Charles IV, by the German sculptor Ernst Julius Hänel, was erected in 1848, on the 500th anniversary of the Charles University. The king is depicted in full growth, holding in his right hand a folded decree on the establishment of a university in Prague with 4 faculties. On the pedestal there are sculptures of seated people who hold objects in their hands, allegorically showing the specifics of the faculties: theological, medical, law and philosophical. Above the allegorical sculptures, at the corners of the pedestal, there are four small bronze figures of famous personalities of the historical era of Charles IV.