What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 30 March 2023.

Pod Slovany already existed by the 18th century; it was probably built much earlier than that.

Until the 18th century, the street was called Ozerov, named after V Ozerově, a local garden, whose name, in turn, is probably related to ostrov (island).

Until 1850, the road was then called Korunní (not this one: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/12/23/prague-3-day-187-korunni/).

The name ‘Pod Slovany’, meanwhile, literally translates as ‘Under the Slavs’.

The five Slavs in question are Jerome, Cyril and Methodius, Vojtěch and Prokop. The church dedicated to the five of them was consecrated in 1372, in the presence of King Wenceslas IV.

In the 17th century, Spanish monks from Montserrat made considerable changes to the church’s structure and design.

The church was badly damaged by Allied bombing in February 1945 – the vault and both towers collapsed, and it wasn’t until 1968 that reconstruction was completed.

This is very much not the full story of the church-monastery complex round here, but, if I tell all that now, that’ll leave me with absolutely nothing to say on *checks* days 143 and 144. Děkuji za pochopení.