The Latin inscription on the upstream side of the central bridge: "To Archduke Franz Karl. 1842. The town."

There is mention of a wooden bridge in this location from 1280. It was at first called the Old Bridge (Stari most) and later the Lower Bridge (Spodnji most), in contrast to the Upper Bridge that was built in the location of the nowadays Cobblers' Bridge in the same century. It was also named the Špital Bridge (Špitalski most) after the nearby poorhouse, which was established in the early 14th century. It was built anew in 1657 after a fire.

In 1842, the Lower Bridge was replaced by a new bridge designed by Giovanni Picco, an Italian architect from Villach, and named Franz's Bridge, (Frančev most) in honor of Archduke Franz Karl of Austria. It also became known as the Franciscan Bridge (Frančiškanski most). This bridge, opened on 25 September 1842, had two arches and a metal fence. The essentials of the bridge have been preserved until today, which is evidenced by the inscribed dedication to the archduke above its central pier, reading in Latin "ARCHIDVCI. FRANCISCO. CAROLO. MDCCCXLII. CIVITAS.", which means "To Archduke Franz Karl in 1842 by the Town."[1][2]

In order to prevent the 1842 stone arch bridge from being a bottleneck, the architect Jože Plečnik designed in 1929 the extension of the bridge with two footbridges at a slight angle on each side of it. In collaboration with his student Ciril Tavčar, who drew the plans, he published the proposal in the same year in the journal Ljubljanski zvon.[3] Construction started in 1931 and continued until spring 1932. The bridge was opened for traffic in April 1932.

The bridge was renovated in 1992. Since 2007, all the three bridges have been part of the Ljubljana pedestrian-only zone.