What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 12 March 2023.

Podskalská was built in 1870.

We touched briefly on the settlement of Podskalí yesterday: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/26/prague-2-day-121-na-vytoni/. It was incorporated into Prague’s New Town in 1348, and then burned down in 1420 during fighting over Vyšehrad.

After the Hussite Wars, three of Podskalí’s four churches were rebuilt. The district survived for a few more centuries, but as Prague got bigger in the 19th century, parts of it were demolished.

In 1890, Prague was hit by floods so bad that three of Charles Bridge’s arches swept away. The authorities decided that an embankment wall was needed to protect the city from any such damage in future.

Other reasons for the this ‘rehabilitation / redevelopment / renewal’ (all possible translations of asanace) included poor sanitation and the lack of a sewage system.

Between 1905 and 1914, the village of Podskalí disappeared in favour of (amongst other things) Rašín Embankment and the Vyšehrad Tunnel. Several buildings survive, however, including the customs house (see yesterday’s post, again).

There’s a quite wonderful short film about Podskalí from 1967, a time when people with memories of the settlement were still around to tell their stories: