What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 23 February 2024.

A ‘průchod’ is a passage(way) or alley(way), much like a ‘pasáž’ (except you wouldn’t also use ‘průchod’ to refer to a shopping arcade).

It can also be used to denote the action of going through something, rather than the physical space itself.

As in ‘Průchod stavbou zakázán!’, which translates something like ‘Sod off, this is a construction site and we’re trying to work, so cross over to the other side or the road like everyone else is doing, FFS, I hate tourists’.

You’ll remember yesterday’s seminary/boarding school: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/28/prague-1-day-151-konviktska/.

Well, there was a passageway going through this building, and connecting Konviktská with https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/28/prague-1-day-150-bartolomejska/.

It outlived the konvikt, and was promoted to street status in 1905, when it was named after the composer Karel Bendl (1838-1897), who had worked nearby.

The street got its current name in 1968. It’s hardly the district’s most happening street, but it can make for some of its most atmospheric photos.