What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on Twitter on 26 October 2022.

U Vodárny was built in 1885.

It was known as Gebauerova from 1940 to 1945, after Jan Gebauer (1838-1907), one of the most important Czech linguists.

He famously exposed the Manuscripts of Dvůr Králové and Zelená Hora (which I really hope I get to write about one day) as a hoax in 1886.

‘U Vodárny’, meanwhile, means ‘At the waterworks’, and is named after the Vinohrady Water Tower.

Side note: yesterday morning, when I took this pic, was glorious.

The water tower was built in 1882, based on a design by the architect Antonín Turek (1861-1916), in a Neo-Renaissance style.

It was a reaction to the increasing population and industrialisation of the area.

Until 1912, the water came from the Vltava; after that it originated in a waterworks in Káraný, a village in Prague-East.

Until 1962, the waterworks provided H2O to Vinohrady, but also, at different times, to Žižkov, Strašnice, Vršovice, Pankrác, Nusle and Braník.

Which feels quite appropriate, given that the tower lies at the border of three Prague districts (Prague 2, Prague 3 and Prague 10).

There used to be a lookout tower here, from which you could see the Krkonoše mountains on a good day, but it hasn’t been accessible to the public for years.

After 1962, the tower was converted into a residential area, which may be the only reason why we still have it today.

There are current plans to turn the waterworks into the ‘Hydropolis Centre’ – an education space teaching the public about drinking water, and also containing spaces for leisure. http://hydropolis-praha.cz

A rather swish-looking video showing plans for Hydropolis – which should be opened in 2024 – is here: