What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 23 October 2023.

You can read the long, devious, side-swapping story of Albrecht z Valdštejna here: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-46-valdstejnske-namesti/.

But I’m also going to suggest that you take a look at the story of Johannes Kepler: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-19-keplerova/.

Because, in 1608, a young Valdštejn was in Prague and, as was customary for anyone of importance at the time, got a horoscope from Kepler (although he never met Kepler and sent an intermediary on his behalf).

Kepler was sceptical about astrology, but was even more sceptical about Rudolph II’s ability to pay him (he was the court astrologer and mathematician), so these horoscopes were a nice – and necessary – side-job.

Working with nothing but Valdštejn’s name and date of birth, Kepler’s horoscope was remarkably accurate, describing his subject as intelligent, antisocial, ambitious to the point of being inappropriate, suspicious of others, incapable of love, greedy and cruel.

One wonders if Valdštejn would own a social media network or two if he had been born in the 20th century.

Kepler also predicted that Valdštejn would marry his way into a lot of money, and would become very popular, but also make himself a lot of enemies.

Valdštejn would remain obsessed with horoscopes (i.e. with himself) for the rest of his life. In early 1634, Kepler predicted that Valdštejn was about to enter a period of particularly big disagreements with those around him.

Given he was killed by his own men on 23 February, it’s safe to say Kepler wasn’t wrong about this either.

Number 6, U Bílého beránka (The White Ram), is a Neo-Baroque villa built in 1917. It hosts the Belgian Embassy.

Whereas next door’s Fürstenberg Palace is somewhat older – dating back to 1580 – and has been leased to the Polish government for use as their embassy since 1922. It also has what I imagine to be one of the greatest office views in the world.

Kolovratský Palace, at number 10, is one of the (many) seats of the Czech Parliament.

While number 14, Pálffy Palace, is used by the Prague Conservatory.

And number 20, U zlatého slunce (The Golden Sun), hosts the National Pedagogical Museum and Library of J.A. Comenius, devoted to the history of Czech education.

On the other side of the street, there’s Valdštejnská jízdárna, a historical riding school now used by the National Gallery.

There’s a lot of reconstruction right now, hence these photos being terrible.