What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on Twitter on 11 July 2022.

Sabinova was built in 1875.

Until 1962, the street was called Jaboukova (named after either Jakoubek ze Stříbra or Jakoubek z Vřesovic, both prominent Hussites in the early 15th century).

Karel Sabina (1813-77) was, among other things, a writer, poet, playwright, journalist and politician.

Despite growing up in poverty (and claiming to be the son of a Polish noble), he studied philosophy and law in Prague and Vienna (though he didn’t finish his studies).

During this time, he became a member of Karel Hynek Mácha’s circle, which helped organise a collection for Poles fleeing the November Uprising in 1831.

From 1835, he started publishing articles in journals, which brought him into conflict with the Austrian regime, including censorship and police surveillance.

Increasingly politically active, he was arrested in 1849 for taking part in the May Coup, and was sentenced to death in 1851.

Ultimately, the sentence was reduced to imprisonment (in Olomouc prison), and he was freed in 1857.

In 1870, he was accused by a newspaper of being a police informant, snd was found guilty of the same at an unofficial trial (at which the jury included Jan Neruda and Vítězslav Hálek) in 1872.

He became an outcast from this moment, living in hiding, having his books withdrawn from circulation, and being obliged to write under pen names.

Sabina died of exhaustion in 1877.