What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 31 December 2023.

In 1115, Vladislav I, Duke of Bohemia, had a monastery built in Kladruby, near Tachov (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/19/prague-3-day-17-tachovske-namesti/); he would be buried there when he died a decade later.

He also decreed that a village be created here, in the monastery’s honour. The village was named Opatovice (an opat is an ‘abbott’, with both words having their root in the Aramaic ‘abbā’).

The abbott may actually have lived here, at least according to one source I read.

The monastery was closed in 1785, but the building still exists (and can be visited from March onwards), and there’s a nice history of it on https://www.klaster-kladruby.cz/en/about/history.

Opatovice had its own monastery too – at number 158 – adjoined to the Church of St Michael (which, in its most recent incarnation, was discussed on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/13/prague-1-day-98-v-jircharich/).

In 1348, Charles IV founded Prague’s New Town, and so Opatovice ceased to exist as a separate village.

Current-day Opatovická includes the premises of the former Josef R. Vilímek Publishing House, one of the most famous in Bohemia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It’s now used by the Higher Vocational School of Journalism (VOŠP).

The street also features Vilímkův průchod, also named after the publisher, and linking Opatovická to Spálená. It’s convenient – and I can’t believe I hadn’t realised it was there until I took these photos – but it’s also in need of a bit of a makeover.