What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on Twitter on 29 September 2022.

Novovysočanská was built in 1906.

We’re at the ‘streets I didn’t realise were partially in Prague 3 / Žižkov’ stage of things.

In my defence, there isn’t actually a single street sign in the Prague 3 part of Novovysočanská, and this pic is the nearest I can get to one.

Until 1931, the street was called Žižkova; in 1940, it took over a street called Trocnovská (not https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/30/prague-3-day-102-trocnovska/).

The street was also called 5. května (5 May), a reference to the start of the Prague Uprising, for a brief time after WW2.

Nové Vysočany is the south-western part of Vysočany, a separate town between 1902 and 1921, before it was incorporated into Prague. It’s directly north of Na Balkáně (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/19/prague-3-day-39-na-balkane/).

Vysočany has traditionally been an industrial area. On 25 March 1945, it was hit by an Allied air raid, which killed 400 people and damaged several factories and the historic fortress: https://www.vhu.cz/exhibit/nasledky-americkeho-naletu-na-prahu-z-25-brezna-1945/ and https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/veda/3066916-lidem-hruzou-sedively-vlasy-a-umirali-v-polich-nalet-na-prahu-pred-75-lety-zanechal.

Nové Vysočany is also the name of a building development, aiming to improve the fairly empty areas that are still around here despite the nearby presence of the O2 and the Harfa shopping centre: https://www.blesk.cz/clanek/regiony-praha-praha-zpravy/693365/nove-centrum-vysocan-namesti-emila-kolbena-vznikne-u-o2-areny-obklopi-ho-byty-i-skoly.html

For Czech speakers, here’s a more interesting story about a new street name than anything I’ve managed to write above: https://www.forum24.cz/dalsi-hrdinove-heydrichiady-maji-v-prazskych-vysocanech-svoji-ulici/.