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Here's the real scoop on the luck superstitions of the Charles Bridge... The 16th statue walking across the Charles Bridge from the Old Town towards the Castle is a statue of St. John of Nepomuk. He's easy to find because he's exactly halfway across and has 5 gold stars forming a halo around his head. He is the national saint of Bohemia. St. John (real name "Jan Velflin") was a vicar-general that went against the wishes of King Wenceslaus IV. As a result he was tortured and thrown from the Charles Bridge into the Vltava River where he drown on March 20, 1393. Legend has it that that five sparkling points of light ("stars") appeared hovering above the river soon after this about 500 metres downstream from where the priest was thrown in. A drought a few months later revealed the priest's body on the dry riverbed below where the stars had been.
Anyway, on the pedestal below the statue are three plaques. Now if you are going to be a tourist and be superstitious, you can at least try to do the local superstition correctly!
The plaque on the right depicts St. John being thrown off the bridge. You want to touch the depiction of the saint on the bridge. ...Not the bum of the big, fat lady on the shore underneath him! (Which I saw many an unknowing tourist enthusiastically fondle.) Touching the saint will bring you good luck and ensure that you return to Prague soon.
The plaque in the middle has some Latin stuff on it that you probably don't understand anyway, so you can ignore that one.
The plaque on the left of the pedestal shows a guard and a dog. Some superstitions say that petting the dog will reward you with a faithful spouse, keep a secret hidden from others forever, or bring you luck. Others say that petting the dog is incredibly bad luck. So best to stay away from this one altogether. Besides, nobody used to touch the dog until some drunk Czech students polished it shiny sometime around 2006 just to see if people would touch it too. Sure enough, people did. They must still be laughing their heads off about that prank.
Several feet away from this statue, facing towards the Old Town Square, on the left side top edge of the bridge is a bronze cross with five stars on it. This marks the place that St. John was thrown into the river. It's said that placing your left hand on it, with one finger touching each of the stars, will make any wish come true. While I was there, no tourists even seemed to notice this cross except for me. "This must have been where they threw him off," I said to my companions feeling very clever with myself.
Good Luck!

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