What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on Twitter on 12 August 2022.

Pod Vítkovem was built in 1872.

It was known as Vítkov until 1947, and as ‘under Vítkov’ ever since.

So here are the new facts about the memorial as promised during https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/12/04/prague-3-day-106-u-pamatniku/.

The Nazis seized the lower buildings of the Museum in 1939, but somehow didn’t bother seizing the Monument until 1942, enabling the resistance to remove everything of value in the meantime.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, under the statue, was established in 1949. It includes remains of soldiers who died at the Battle of Zborov in 1917, the first major action of the Czechoslovak Legions on the Eastern Front.

Since 2006, the monument also houses the remains of Alois Eliáš, the prime minister of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia from 1939 to 1942, executed by the Nazis for secretly participating in the resistance.

You can read more about the Memorial – and get tickets to visit its various components – on https://nm.cz/en/visit-us/buildings/the-national-memorial-on-the-vitkov-hill….