What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on Twitter on 18 September 2022.

Ondříčkova was built in 1885.

Until 1937, this was Břetislavova, presumably after Břetislav I (1005-1055), II (1060-1100) III (died 1197), all Dukes of Bohemia.

František Ondříček was born on Nový Svět in Hradčany in 1857, and played violin in taverns and cafes as part of his father’s band.

He graduated from Prague Conservatory in 1876, continuing his studies in Paris. Later, he moved to London, performing at St James’s Hall on Piccadilly.

In the late 1880s, he settled in Vienna (where he would lead the Neue Wiener Konservatorium from 1910 to 1915); in the 1880s and 1890s, he embarked on numerous tours of Europe, Asia and North America.

Such was his popularity in Bohemia that, in 1901, attendees of one of his concerts at the Rudolfinum unharnessed a horse from a carriage and led it to Václavák, where Ondříček was staying.

Proof that fans doing stupid things is hardly a phenomenon created by the internet.

He moved back to Prague when Czechoslovakia was founded, and taught at the Conversatory.

He died in 1922 of a heart attack in a carriage at Milan train station, just four days after giving a concert in Geneva.