What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 22 September 2023.

An úvoz is a ‘sunken lane’ or a ‘hollow way’. The longer name for one of these is an úvozová cesta.

‘One of those’ being a road which cuts into the terrain, and is therefore a good bit lower than the land on either side of it.

Those of us from the UK may know such roads from the North and South Downs, or the West Country. They’re also fairly frequent in the west of France.

Originally, Úvoz was called Strahovská cesta (we’re getting to Strahov), and then, until 1870, it was known as ‘Hluboká cesta’ (Deep Road), for the same reasons as described above.

Úvoz is the home of the Embassy of Sweden. More on Sweden and a particular Swede in one of this weekend’s posts.

The street also hosts U Zlaté hvězdy (Golden Star), which also lies on Nerudova and Radnické schody (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-23-radnicke-schody/). Quite a location, and, since 2000, a hotel.

There’s also U Kamenného sloupu (the Stone Column), former home of photographer Josef Sudek, and, a few days ago, very clearly having some work done.

Great views from this street, too.