What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on Twitter on 25 October 2022.

Nitranská was built in 1889.

Nitra, located 95 km east of Bratislava, is the fifth-largest city in Slovakia, with a population of 79,000.

It’s also the oldest Slovak city, first mentioned in 828, but archeological items found there have been dated back more than 25,000 years.

A major Celtic settlement from the 5th century BC onwards, the town was subsequently occupied by the Romans (1st-4th centuries), and the Germanic Quadi, whose capital it may have been.

The first Slavs arrived around the year 500. In the 8th century, the city became the centre of the Principality of Nitra.

In 833, Nitra joined the Great Moravian Empire, and occupied a larger territory than it does now; in 880, the first Christian bishopric in Slovakia was founded here.

Nitra later became part of Hungary, surviving a Mongol invasion in 1241, and also being damaged by Přemysl Otakar II (of ‘everything’ fame) in 1271-2.

Having become a royal town in 1248 under Béla IV, Nitra lost this privilege in 1288.

Subsequent centuries weren’t much calmer – the Hussites attacked in the 15th century, and the Ottomans conquered the castle in 1663.

Nitra was burned down in anti-Habsburg fighting in 1708.

Following the 1848 Revolutions, it was given the right to self-government.

From 1883 to 1919, Nitra – which had as many Hungarians as it did Slovaks at the time – was the seat of FEMKE, the Upper Hungarian Magyar Educational Association, an NGO whose basic aim was to make Slovaks speak (and be) Hungarian instead.

In 2008, the (probable) remains of Jozef Tiso, leader of the First Slovak Republic and Nazi collaborator, were reburied at the Catholic Cathedral in Nitra: https://www.irozhlas.cz/zpravy-svet/v-nitre-pohrbili-ostatky-prezidenta-valecneho-slovenskeho-statu-tisa_200810302252_mhromadka

Since the Velvet Revolution, Nitra has produced several successful rock bands, of which the most well-known are Horkýže Slíže and Desmod.

I’m terribly ashamed* to say that I remember reading that the Cheese House, located in Nitra, inspired the design of the UK Big Brother house in 2007: https://www.archiweb.cz/b/polyfunkcny-dom-cheese-house

* I’m not ashamed at all