What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 29 November 2023.

A lanová dráha is a funicular, i.e. a type of cable railway whose track goes along a steep slope. Which could mean that this street name needs no further explanation, but there’s no fun in that, so I’ll continue.

In 1891, Prague held a world’s fair, called the General Land Centennial Exhibition, or the Jubilee Exhibition. It was held to commemorate an industrial fair held in the Clementinum (coming up in… 25-35 posts’ time?) exactly one hundred years earlier.

It became a very good advert for Czech innovation and entrepreneurship, at a time when the Czechs still didn’t have independence; a boycott by Bohemia’s German population really played into the Czechs’ hands.

Several buildings and structures built for the Exhibition still survive – the most obvious one is the Výstaviště Praha Exhibition Ground in Holešovice (here it is in 2009).

Another creation was the Eiffel Tower-inspired Petřín Lookout Tower / Petřínská rozhledna (photo, again, from 2009, and looks like it).

Lookout towers are very nice and all that, but Petřín is quite high up, so something was needed to enable people to access it. Enter the funicular.

Originally, the funicular was powered by water. The 400-metre ride took six minutes and both stations were in different locations to where they are now. It closed in 1914, and didn’t get started again until 1931.

The 1930s version was considerably different – the stations were moved, the railway was retracked, and a middle station, called Nebozízek, was introduced.

There are two stories about why Nebozízek is so called. As so often, there’s a more realistic story and a more fun one.

The more realistic story is that the winding roads around Petřín look like the spirals on a gimlet (Czech: nebozez).

The more fun story is that the young son of Charles IV couldn’t say ‘ř’ properly (me neither – closest I’ll ever come to royalty), and Charles once asked him if he wanted porridge or schnitzel (kaši nebo řízek) for dinner, to which young Vašek replied ‘nebo zízek’).

Vašek would later become King Václav IV, which is definitely a last laugh of sorts.

After landslides on Petřín, the funicular was closed again and wouldn’t reopen until 1985. Here’s a news clip from just before it was relaunched: https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/10116288585-archiv-ct24/218411058210023/cast/650028/

Meanwhile, I was going to write that you can use the funicular using a regular Prague public transport ticket – but, as of August 2021, that’s a lie: https://www.dpp.cz/en/entertainment-and-experience/events-and-attractions/funicular-to-petrin

If you don’t have a ticket, you have to buy a special one for CZK 60; your regular 30-minute or 90-minute ones won’t work. If you have a Lítačka, though, then you’re still good. Phew.

Views from the cablecar are great. I’m about 65% sure these still not very good photos from 2009 are taken from there.