What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on Twitter on 19 September 2022.

Radhošťská was built in 1904.

Part of Radhošťská used to be a separate street, called Rostislavova from 1920 to 1947, after Rostislav, the second known ruler of Moravia from 846 to 870.

Before becoming a victim of cancel culture, 1952-street-planning-style, Rostislavova was renamed Tayerlova, after Rudolf Tayerle (1877-1942), a trade unionist and politician for the ČSSD.

Tayerle was arrested in Akce Albrecht I, a preventive arrest operation by the Gestapo in September 1939, and died in Mauthausen three years later.

Radhošť, meanwhile, is a mountain in the Beskydy range, and, according to legend, the seat of the Slavic god Radegast/Radogost.

However, it’s generally believed that Radegast wasn’t a separate god at all, but was the local name for Svarozhits, the Slavic god of fire.

Legend has it that Cyril and Methodius (who were obviously in Moravia to tell people to start worshipping Actual God instead of Radegast or Svarozhits or whoever) erected a cross here and banished Radegast forever.

This is why the peak of the mountain now hosts a cross, a chapel (built in 1898) and a sculpture of Cyril and Methodius (from 1931).

https://www.turistika.cz/mista/radhost-socha-radegast/detail

In 1968, Radhošť hosted a camp for Soviet army soldiers. Screw them and their military interventions.

It’s too early for one of these, isn’t it?