What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 5 March 2023.

Botičská was built (as a path) around the 16th century.

For a time in the 19th century, until 1850, this was called Špitálská, after St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and Almshouse (Špitál a chudobinec svatého Bartoloměje), which was closed in 1884. The building that’s on this spot now is used by the Ministry of Justice.

The Botič, meanwhile, is a tributary of the Vltava which flows along here, along part of its length of 34.5 kilometres. Its name appears to derive from botění, which means ‘gaining volume’, in other words, flooding.

Places where you’re most likely to have seen the stream before include Průhonice chateau park, Záběhlice and the Hostivař reservoir, where the stream is dammed up. It also flows behind the Bohemians 1905 Prague stadium and around the station at Vršovice.

The dam at Hostivař was built in 1962, in reaction to bad flooding caused by the Botič four years earlier. Pics of which are on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:1958_Boti%C4%8D_flood

In the Prague floods of 2002, the Botič had its highest levels in 25 years, which was particularly unappreciated by those in Záběhlice and Hostivař at the time.

The 2013 floods certainly had an effect too: https://www.horydoly.cz/vodaci/povodnim-na-botici-nezabrani-ani-hostivarska-prehrada.html

Less remembered, however, is a flood in 1981: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:1981_Boti%C4%8D_flood_in_Hostiva%C5%99

The Botič is actually the stream rushing through the meadows (voda hučí po lučinách) that forms the second line of Kde domov můj, the Czech national anthem.

Given that Kde domov můj originates from the play Fidlovačka (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/07/01/prague-2-day-53-tylovo-namesti/), it’s rather delightful that the Botič flows past the Na Fidlovačce Theatre in Prague 4.

It’s also given its name to a small park by the street, Parčík Botičská, and if parčík doesn’t make your Sunday morning a little bit brighter, then I can’t help you.

One odd quirk is that, while the official pronunciation is ‘Botič’, you will hear quite a few locals go for ‘Botyč’ instead.