What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 13 January 2024. I promise this is a square, and not a pair of glasses or a bikini top.

On the one hand, I can cheat a bit on this one and send you back 24 hours: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/15/prague-1-day-111-jungmannova/.

On the other hand, the square itself deserves some attention.

In 1347, one year after the founding of the New Town, Charles IV founded the Church of Our Lady of the Snows / Kostel Panny Marie Sněžné, as well as the associated monastery.

Regarding that name: legend has it that a Roman patrician called John vowed, with his wife, to donate their possessions to the Virgin Mary, but prayed that she’d give them a sign when it was time to do so.

One night in August, they had a vision of the Virgin, and, later that night, snow fell on the Esquilino, one of the seven hills of Rome. Which was, apparently, the sign that had been requested.

The area therefore became known as Matka Boží Sněžná, and the most famous preacher at the church was a certain Jan Želivský (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/19/prague-3-day-23-jana-zelivskeho/), who, in 1419, led a group of his followers from here into the New Town.

Which may not sound particularly exceptional, except that this walk to the New Town would ultimately result in the First Prague Defenestration and the Hussite Wars.

In 1606, the church and monastery started to be used by the Discalced Franciscan order. In 1611, a fanatical mob attacked the monastery and killed fourteen monks.

In 2012, they were beatified as the Fourteen Prague Martyrs.

This courtyard within the church is dedicated to them, complete with a street sign which will have me lying in bed at 01:00 tonight wondering if it was wrong of me not to write this part as a separate thread.

Here’s how the church looked in 1930.

The church has also had its own gardens since 1347 (now called Františkánská zahrada). Here they are a couple of weeks ago, probably at their least floral (and at their most ‘hurry up, this is closing early today’).

One of the monastery buildings now hosts the Austrian Cultural Forum (Österreichisches Kulturforum Prag), in front of which there’s a statue of (the non-Austrian but definitely cultural) Josef Jungmann.

And those of us who are still a bit upset about the demise of Bontonland on Václavák can do some music shopping on Jungmannovo instead.

Finally, the square also includes the famed U Pinkasů restaurant, which Václav Havel, Václav Klaus and Miloš Forman all visited more than once (probably not at the same table). In 1843, it became the first place in Prague to have Plzeňský Prazdroj on tap.

There are some great old pictures from the restaurant on Wikipedia (credited to one ‘Titl’).