What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 27 March 2023.

Salmovská was built in the 15th century or earlier.

Until the 15th century, the street was called Krupná, after which it changed slightly to Krupičná.

There used to be a market here, and the names are presumably linked to what was on sale – krupice is semolina, and krupka is groats, or pearl barley.

he street was called Salmova from 1750 to 1870; since then, it’s had its current name.

The House of Salm was a noble dynasty, founded in the 11th century in Salmchâteau, nowadays a village in south-east Belgium.

In the 12th century, an offshoot of this family was first mentioned – the Salm-Reifferscheidts, originating in the Rhineland.

Over the centuries, proving that some people can never have enough surnames, further offshoots occurred: Salm-Reifferscheid-Bedburg, Salm-Reifferscheidt Krautheim, Salm-Reifferscheidt-Raitz and Salm-Reifferscheid-Dyck.

The House of Salm-Reifferscheidt-Raitz came into being in 1734, after some sort of split among the Bedburgs.

Raitz, is, nowadays, Rájec-Jestřebí in Blansko District in Moravia.

One Antonín Karel Salm-Reifferscheid bought Rájec and had its castle rebuilt in the 1760s. The Salms also had a good number of palaces in Prague, including this one: https://www.ngprague.cz/en/about/buildings/salm-palace

One of the family – Hugo Karel František Salm-Reifferscheidt-Raitz, born in 1832 – apparently enhanced a large garden which was on this spot, and it became a popular hangout for students (basically a co-working space for the pre-wifi age).

However, it started to disappear in the 1860s, as the number of buildings in the area increased.

Also in the ‘however’ corner: there are record of the street being called Salmova long before the garden was upgraded.

It’s not fully clear if the street was named after a specific Salm, or all of them (‘Salmova’ would apply one, ‘Salmovská’ several).

I’m now also wondering exactly who founded / built up / stopped giving a toss about the garden.

The family’s status as one of the most important landowners in Moravia somewhat inevitably came to an end in 1945.

On 29 June 1914, the day after Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, a fictional guy called Švejk spent a few hours at the police station on Salmovská, perfectly oblivious to world events (Hašek referred to the street as Salmova, though).