What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 18 April 2023.

Na Zderaze was built in 1869 and replaced a square which had been there before that.

Zderaz is the name of a settlement that used to stand here. Legend has it that it was named after Zderad, who was a favourite attendant of 11th-century Bohemian ruler Vratislav II (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/25/prague-2-day-99-vratislavova/).

Zderad was reputedly killed by Vratislav’s son, the future Břetislav II, for insulting him during a siege of Brno Castle in 1091 – the first time that Brno is mentioned in writing (I couldn’t tell you what the insult was, though).

In the late 12th century, the Zderaz Monastery of the Crusaders of the Guardians of the Holy Sepulchre of the Order of St. Augustine (catchy) was founded here; a church would appear around the same time.

Around 1380, Václav IV would build a small castle (hrádek) here. In the tumultuous times of the Hussite Wars, it was lived in by the legate of the Council of Basel.

In 1627, it was reconverted into a monastery by the Augustinians.

This brilliant picture by Philipp van den Bossche apparently includes the hrádek.

Zderaz was also the home of the St Wenceslas Spa: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/01/prague-2-day-150-dittrichova/

In the early 19th century, the area was expanded into a square, which was giving the not-at-all confusing name of… Václavské náměstí.

Then, from 1850 to 1869, while further work was made on it, it was given the mildly less confusing name of Malá Karlovo náměstí.

Zderaz itself, as a district, ceased to exist when the riverbank was ‘tidied up’ around the turn of the 20th century.