What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 9 February 2024.

Prague’s New Town was founded by Charles IV in 1348, which I *may* have mentioned 1,348 times to date.

Charles was a busy man, what with also having been crowned King of the Romans in 1346, and also experiencing the death of his first wife (Blanche of Valois) in 1348 when she was just 32, and still needing an heir.

Therefore, Charles was away a lot. When he came back from one trip, he supposedly found that a street had been built in his absence and without his consent.

Kázat means ‘to preach’ or to ‘proclaim’. Charles hadn’t proclaimed that this street should’ve been built. And he (allegedly) said that, for this reason, the street should be called ’Nekázanka’ forever more.

Which, given it’s been almost 800 years, has kind of stuck.

On the other hand, there is nothing unusual about the location or existence of this street, so the entire story is probably a load of rubbish.

The other option – somewhat more likely – can be linked to the fact that nekázeň means a ‘lack of discipline’, i.e. the street was known for Czechs Behaving Badly (it’s not particularly dingy, but one of its neighbours – coming up in a few days – certainly still is).

What Nekázanka is definitely known for now is its skyways, which were designed by architect Osvald Polívka in 1912.

They link two buildings which are now used by UniCredit and ČSOB respectively (sorry to destroy the Oxford-style fantasy): https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/22/prague-1-day-137-na-prikope/.

About six months after posting this one on Twitter, I had the pleasure of meeting their neighbour while on holiday in Szeged, Hungary.