What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on Twitter on 29 August 2022.

U rajské zahrady was built in 1895. It translates as ‘At the Garden of Paradise’.

The street was Přemyslova, after one or more of the Přemyslid dynasty, until 1930.

There were vineyards around here in the 15th century; four centuries later, a popular garden restaurant opened, complete with concerts and balloon flights (a novelty at the time).

In 1886, the garden architect František Josef Thomayer created a storage garden, with flowers stored in greenhouses, later to be distributed to parks across Prague.

The greenhouses also provided flowers for special events – when the General Land Centennial Exhibition took place in 1891, no fewer than 120,000 plants grown here decorated the individual pavilions.

The construction of what is now the Prague University of Economics and Business (Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, VŠE) meant that the garden’s role was taken over by a location further east – see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/26/prague-3-day-93-u-zasobni-zahrady/.

The area became increasingly neglected, as concrete became a bigger priority than greenery. It wasn’t until 2006-8 that the park took its current form.

Its views of Prague are… not bad, shall we say. Photo from https://park-rajska-zahrada.cz/odpocinek.

Great pic of back in the day on https://zizkovskelisty.cz/spolecnost/misto-pro-leto-rajska-zahrada….