What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on Twitter on 13 December 2022.

Mikovcova was built in 1884.

Ferdinand Mikovetz was born in Sloup v Čechách / Bürgstein (near Česká Lípa) in 1826.

Despite being born into a German-speaking family, he became fascinated by Czech patriotism during his school years.

In the early 1840s, he studied history and art history. Around this time, he adopted the doesn’t-get-more-Czech name of Břetislav.

He joined the Repeal association, which was inspired by Irish nationalists.

Repeal most famously held a meeting at Svatováclavské lázně on 11 March 1848, where the first Prague Petition, demanding additional rights for Czechs, was written and addressed to Ferdinand V.

In June of the same year, Mikovec would be one of those standing on the barricades during the Prague Uprising, which was suppressed by the army.

After this, he fled south to take part in the Serb uprising of 1848–49.

Returning to Prague, in 1851 he founded Lumír, a weekly magazine aiming to increase the prestige of Czech literature. It was published, with breaks, until 1940.

He was also involved in the completion of St Vitus’ Cathedral, and founded Arkadia, a literary and artistic association.

This picture by Vojtěch Bartoněk shows Mikovec and Josef Mánes at Arkadia. I haven’t confirmed whether this meeting happened (the picture is dated over 20 years after the death of both men).

Mikovec published the first volume of his work on Czech monuments (Starožitnosti a Památky země České) in 1860.

However, congenital heart problems meant that he was never able to produce the second one.

In 1861, he was so ill that his mother had to move in with him (on present-day Lublaňská). He died in the following year, aged just 35.

The second volume of Starožitnosti a Památky země České was published in 1862 by a colleague, Karel Václav Zap.