What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 25 February 2023.

Hlavova, like its surroundings, was built up before and after WW2, but not named until 1963.

Jaroslav Hlava was born in Dolní Kralovice, near Benešov, in 1855. He graduated in medicine from Charles University in 1879.

By 1887, he had become a ‘full’ professor of pathological anatomy there, having previously been a substitute professor. He was also the dean of the Faculty of Medicine on several occasions, as well as the rector of the whole University from 1906-7.

Hlava produced an article called O úplavici (On Dysentery), also in 1887. This got an English translation, but there was a slight problem: it was credited to somebody called O. Uplavici.

Which is amazing.

Just as amazingly, this didn’t get corrected until the 1930s.

Hlava founded the university’s institute of pathology, which ultimately opened on Albertov in 1921 and is known as ‘Ústav Hlavův’.

It celebrated its centenary in 2021: https://www.zdravezpravy.cz/2021/09/19/hlavuv-ustav-na-albertove-slavi-sto-let-od-sveho-otevreni/

Hlava also took a keen interest in cultural life, being a co-founder of the National Theatre Society and later becoming its chairman.

He died in Podolí in 1924 and was cremated at Olšany Crematorium.