What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 8 March 2024.

This ‘street’ (see later on) didn’t have a name at all until 1905, when it was given the name that Náprstkova (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/01/prague-1-day-159-naprstkova/) had previously had.

‘Zlatá’ means ‘golden’, and, back in the Middle Ages, jewellers and goldsmiths lived and traded round here.

(Compare to https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/05/prague-1-day-4-zlata-ulicka-u-daliborky/, which many believe was named as an ironic commentary on local poverty).

Anyway, Zlatá is the most confusing street that I’ve walked down so far (the map in the first post might hint at this).

The westernmost part includes the back end of St Anne’s Convent (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/03/prague-1-day-163-anenske-namesti/) – and you can’t access that part of the street without a key.

This part of the street also features St Anne’s Church, as discussed in the same thread and no longer acting as a church.

The next part of the street is really a passageway – and is also closed at night (clearly, there’s something about streets named after gold only being accessible at certain times of day).

And then its final part is more like, well, a street – but starts slightly south of where the previous section ends.

On the other hand, it’s accessible 24/7, so that’s nice.