What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on Twitter on 2 October 2022.

U Vinohradského hřbitova, built in 1925, translates as ’By the Vinohrady Cemetery’.

Vinohrady Cemetery was built in 1885, and was mainly used for the burial of upper-class Prague citizens.

It was expanded over the next forty years, and is now the second-largest cemetery in Prague in terms of burials (after Olšany).

The Cemetery also hosts Strašnice Crematorium, the largest in Europe by area.

While it’s a cultural monument these days, both the Nazi and Communist regimes used the Crematorium to burn the victims of show trials, police torture and executions.

The director of the crematorium, František Suchý, kept a list of all those who were cremated – which, in 1952, would lead to the communists sentencing him to 25 years in prison.

A park in Strašnice is now named after him.

Victims of the Nazis who were cremated here include Bishop Gorazd (Matěj Pavlík), writer Vladislav Vančura and general Josef Mašín.

Victims of the communists who were cremated here include Emil Hácha, president of Czechoslovakia at the time the Protectorate was set up, and Milada Horáková.

The Havel family has a family vault here. Václav Havel’s ashes are buried there, as is his first wife Olga.

The City of Prague put some footage of the grave here, shortly after Havel’s death: