What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 19 April 2023.

Na Zbořenci was built in 1897.

Prior to 1897, the western part of the street was called Zderazská, and the eastern part was called Na Zderaze, and, for a potted history of Zderaz, please take a look at https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/01/prague-2-day-159-na-zderaze/.

Yesterday’s thread mentioned a not very catchily named monastery built here around 1190. Its Czech name is no snappier than the English one I quoted yesterday: Zderazský klášter křižovníků strážců Božího hrobu řehole svatého Augustina.

Thankfully, somebody had the brainwave that we could just call it Na Zderaz Monastery / Klášter Na Zderaze instead.

Klášter křižovníků strážců Božího hrobu / the Monastery of the Crusaders of the Guardians of the Holy Sepulchre works too; the Crusaders who founded the monastery were known as Zderazští.

With even more inevitability than the fact that the next five posts you see on Twitter will either consist of utter rage or a meme the poster doesn’t quite understand, the Hussites reduced the monastery to ruins in 1419-20.

The ruins remained until 1905. And are also responsible for the name of the street: zbořit means ‘to demolish’, while zbořený means ‘demolished’.

I’m trying to find a perfect translation for zbořenec, but, sadly, ‘demolisherie’ is not a word in English, and Google Translate, having one of its particularly unhelpful days, is asking if I’ve considered ‘wrecker’.