What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 20 September 2023.

We talked about Loreto and The Loretas recently: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/07/prague-1-day-17-loretanske-namesti/.

But this is Hradčany, so we can happily move on to talking about beautiful buildings instead.

Number 1 is Hradčany Town Hall, built around 1600. It fulfilled this role until 1784, when the four historical districts of Prague were merged into one. It’s way smaller than you’d expect a town hall to be, but also an excellent piece of Renaissance architecture.

Trauttmansdorff Palace, at number 6, is named after a noble Austrian family.

It’s served as a set of up-market apartments, a ‘Donucovací pracovna’ (literally ‘forced labour’ – an educational facility aimed at forcing people to get into regular work, a prison building, and, nowadays, as part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Some of the pics here show what a difference a new coat of paint can make: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Trauttmannsdorfsk%C3%BD_pal%C3%A1c_(Hrad%C4%8Dany)

At number 9, Hrzánský palác was lived in by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk from 1894 to 1895. It’s now the representative office of the Presidency of the Government of the Czech Republic and the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic: https://www.idnes.cz/zpravy/domaci/premier-petr-fiala-ptam-se-ja-blesk-rozhovor-prezidentske-volby.A230131_093153_domaci_kop

Masaryk’s daughter, the renowned sociologist Alice Masaryková (1879-1966), would live a few doors up on two occasions, as did Marcia Davenport (1903-96), an American writer best known for her biography of Mozart.

Number 19 is the Jaroslav Ježek School for the Visually Impaired (interesting guy -more on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/01/14/prague-3-day-136-jezkova/).

While those who enjoyed the candelabra on Hradčanské náměstí may be happy to know it has a cousin here, added in 1868.