What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 9 October 2023.

And, today, I give you options.

OPTION 1

Břetislav was born around 1002, the son of Oldřich and a woman who was not Oldřich’s wife (at least at the time).

Dad (https://x.com/ed__ley/status/ed__ley/status/1618142655611047939…) became Duke of Bohemia in 1012, deposing (and blinding*) his brother Jaromír.

* You’re welcome for the reminder that we haven’t got worse, we just haven’t got better.

Father and son would manage to take back Moravia from the Poles in either 1019 and 1029, and Břetislav moved to Olomouc with his wife, Jitka ze Schweinfurtu, whom he had kidnapped from a monastery, because apparently being illegitimate makes you have to do these things.

In 1033 Oldřich was deposed, imprisoned and replaced by Jaromír. In 1034, Jaromír was deposed, imprisoned and replaced by Oldřich. But Oldřich would die in the same year.

Perhaps sensing that being Duke of Bohemia was f**king awful, Jaromír had been offered the position a third time upon Oldřich’s death, but refused in favour of Břetislav. And got murdered a year later anyway. Jesus.

Once in power, Břetislav focused on getting himself some Polish territory – in 1039, he sacked Gniezno, from where he obtained the remains of Adalbert of Prague (Vojtěch) and brought them back home.

The Polish royals were forced to move from Gniezno to Kraków, so we can kind of say that Břetislav had an effect on the Central European tourist industry which has lasted to this very day.

However, if you have a talent, there’s always somebody who’ll get annoyed, so Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor, thinking Břetislav was a bit too good at this reclaiming Polish cities thing, invaded Bohemia in 1040.

Břetislav’s troops gave him the what for at Brůdek (in the Šumava).

In 1041, however, Henry tried again, with a lot more success, besieging Prague Castle. Břetislav was forced to pledge allegiance to Henry, who had realised that someone who is good in battle is a useful ally to have.

Břetislav died in 1055 in Chrudim (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/06/24/prague-3-day-177-chrudimska/) while planning to invade Hungary. He’s buried in Prague Castle.

OPTION 2

Number 306/8 was once a pub called U Břetislavů. Which it definitely isn’t now: https://www.pamatkovykatalog.cz/dum-u-bileho-johanesa-15532173

It also turns out that Prague had at least one other Břetislavova until 1937: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/02/26/prague-3-day-148-ondrickova/

BONUS MATERIAL

From the 14th century, the street was called V rámích soukenických (‘Drapery frames’), which sounds very grand in English but is meant to refer to tools used to stretch cloth products (please comment if you know what these are actually called in English).

Then, from about 1600, it was known as Truhlářská (a ‘truhlář’ is a ‘joiner’), before getting its current name in 1870.