What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 13 October 2023.

This story starts in Mount Carmel, a mountain range on the northern coast of Israel in which the city of Haifa is located.

In the 13th century, a group of men settled here and founded the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, living in solitude, poverty and prayer.

Forced out by the Saracens in 1238, they moved (back) to Europe, and the order gradually lost importance and prestige.

One Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada, better known as Teresa of Ávila, established the Convento de San José  in her home town in 1562, and founded a new order fully dedicated to poverty.

The Discalced Carmelites were established as a separate grouping in 1580, and this seems like a very good time to confess that it was early Shakira who taught me that ‘discalced’ means ‘barefoot’. Gracias, Shak.

In 1624, the Carmelites arrived at an already-existing monastery in Prague (whose Lutheran inhabitants had obviously been forced out after the Battle of Bílá Hora) and expanded it significantly. It’s on this street, and this is its church (at number 9).

The church’s most famous ‘inhabitant’ is the Pražské Jezulátko, or Infant Jesus of Prague, supposedly once the property of Teresa and donated to the Carmelite friars in 1628: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Infant_Jesus_of_Prague#/media/File:Child_Jesus_of_Prague_(original_statue)_(crop).jpg

He’s got a cracking wardrobe, too. Quite jealous: https://www.pragjesu.cz/oblekani-jezulatka/

In 1784, the monastery was abolished as part of Joseph II’s reforms (see also: 3,286 other posts in this series). The altar and its poster boy didn’t get repaired until a century later, while the Carmelites moved back in in 1993.

Another church-monastery combo on Karmelitská – that of Mary Magdalene – was also cancelled at the time, but now hosts the Czech Museum of Music.

Whereas Rohan Palace, across the road, is resided in by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic.

Lažanský Palace, not to be confused with the building of the same name which hosts Cafe Slavia, is the District Court for Prague-West. Despite this very much not being Prague-West.

And Vrtbovský Palace hosts a garden which looks like it could be one of Prague 1’s best-kept secrets, but this idiot didn’t have any cash with him and wasn’t able to pay the entry fee to prove this.

Finishing this thread off with an ‘I get to live in a city which looks like this’ moment.