What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on Twitter on 29 July 2022.

Zvěřinova was built in 2016, making it the newest street yet.

Josef Zvěřina (1913-1990) was a priest, art historian, theologian, philosopher and educator.

He graduated from the (no longer existing) Archbishops’ Gymnázium in Bubeneč in 1932, and was ordained as a priest in Rome in 1937.

After the Czech universities were abolished in 1939, he taught at a ‘substitute’ theological school, but was imprisoned for his anti-German activities for just over a year, starting in 1942.

After WWII, he joined the theological faculty of CU, but was called up for military training when theological schools were closed in 1950.

In early 1952, he was sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment. Released early in 1965, he served as a theologian in the underground church.

In November 1989, he gave speeches to the protesting students, including before an estimated 800,000 on Letná on 25 November (other speeches from that day are in the video below).

After the revolution, it was expected that he would teach at the relaunched theological factory of Charles University – but he died unexpectedly in August 1990.

He was fully rehabilitated in December of the same year.