What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 3 April 2023.

Na Slovanech was built in the 14th century.

This was called Emauzy until 1880 – see yesterday’s thread for more: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/31/prague-2-day-143-namesti-pod-emauzy/

And it’s been called Na Slovanech since then – see this thread for details of who the eponymous Slavs were: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/31/prague-2-day-140-pod-slovany/

Five churches founded by Karel IV in the New Town form a cross-like shape.

In addition to the one we’ve just covered, these include St Catherine’s (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/28/prague-2-day-128-katerinska/).

As well as St. Apollinaire’s (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/25/prague-2-day-113-apolinarska/).

And, testing Twitter’s character limit, the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and St. Charles the Great (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/21/prague-2-day-85-pod-karlovem/).

And then there’s the Kostel Zvěstování Panny Marie Na trávníčku (Church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary ‘On the lawn’), and I’m a little bit sad that a church with such a great name never got its own street name thread. It’s on Na Slupi (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/21/prague-2-day-88-na-slupi/).

Proving that the human need for everything to be deeply significant was born much earlier than the internet was, one Vilém Lorenc theorised that these churches were an attempt to recreate the heavenly Jerusalem.

There’s also a theory that the similarities in the towers of three of the churches meant that the locations of all five churches were originally planned in the design of the New Town.

Although that’s slightly contradicted by the fact that there was a 15-year gap between the building of the first church and the last one. But still, they look nice, and, as demonstrated above, have better names than most.