Originally published on Twitter on 16 December 2022.
Bělehradská was built in the 19th century.
Until 1875, this was the Linecká silnice – the highway to Linz in Austria; it then became the Nuselská silnice – the highway to a somewhat nearer place, Nusle, until 1880.
Then, from 1880 until the Great Geographical Renaming Funday of 1926, it was Havlíčkova, after Karel Karel Havlíček Borovský: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/12/26/prague-3-day-122-havlickovo-namesti/
Belgrade is, of course, the capital of Serbia – a country where Czechs are a recognised national minority.
Czech migration to Serbia started in the early 19th century. A Czech primary school existed in Belgrade from 1923 to 1960.
According to the most recent census carried out in Serbia (the results of the 2022 census haven’t been published yet), there were 1,824 Czechs in Serbia in 2011.
Not a huge number, especially when compared to the 52,750 Slovaks recorded in the same census. And it’s also down from 3,225 in 1981 and 2,211 in 2002 – sadly, demographic decline is a key feature of Serbia these days.
There is one municipality in Vojvodina – Bela Crkva – where Czech is an official language, although Serbian, Hungarian and Romanian are too. Czechs make up about 4.5% of the municipality’s population.
There’s also one village – Češko Selo (literally ‘Czech Village’) where Czechs form 84.78% of the population. But that, in 2002, meant 39 inhabitants out of 46, as Češko Selo is also the smallest village in Vojvodina.
These days, Češko Selo doesn’t even have a school or – you may want to sit down for this – a pub, and the road leading to/from the village is over forty years old and not in the best condition: https://www.danas.rs/vesti/drustvo/nema-prodavnicu-i-skolu-ali-zato-ima-muzej-najmanje-selo-u-vojvodini-i-jedino-gde-su-cesi-i-dalje-vecina/
Bela Crkva’s local radio station has an hour-long Czech broadcast on Monday evenings: https://radiobelacrkva.rs/programska-sema/
The Czech Media Centre in Bela Crkva also prepares a half-hour show which is broadcast weekly by Radio Televizija Vojvodine.
Meanwhile, local TV station TV Pančevo made a six-part series (in Czech) about the Czech minority in 2021:
Finally, back to the capital… I’ve got a lot of time for Belgrade, so much so that, in 2015, when I was thinking it was time to move, it was a toss-up between there and Prague.
I made the right choice, and a trip to Belgrade in late February 2022 really bummed me out for pretty obvious reasons. But here’s a few snaps that justify why it was a toss-up in the first place.
And a few more, complete with cat sleeping in window of bookshop and a particularly creative clock.
And, of course, Serbian transliteration being the best.
What's in a Prague street name 
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