What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 13 April 2024.

Originally, the street was called ‘Ostrožná’ or ‘Ostrožnická’, because an ‘ostroh’ is a spur, and spur-makers set up shop in this area.

A ‘plát’, meanwhile, is, yes, a plate, as in an iron or a steel one.

Therefore, a ‘platnéř’ would be a platemaker, but, rather than those plates having food put on them, they’d become components of a knight’s armour.

There’s a story that a knight came to the area, looking for someone to fix his armour; he met the daughter of one of the platemakers, and fell in love with her, but she rejected his advances.

He reacted by stabbing her; before dying, the girl said that, whatever happened, he would turn to stone and be stuck in this spot for a thousand years.

The (literally) petrified knight was turned into a statue, placed at the front of number 19.

The part of the story that is actually true is that number 19 was knocked down in the early 20th century, and the statue was moved to the City of Prague Museum.

Here’s the street before a large chunk of its buildings were demolished – and also in 1908, during the process. Photos are from https://zastarouprahu.cz.

The westernmost part of Platnéřská – i.e. the part nearest the Vltava – was called Za Křižovníky, Křižovnická ulička or Malá Křižovnická for several centuries, owing to its proximity to the Knights of the Cross and their monastery (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/16/prague-1-day-198-krizovnicke-namesti/).

The monastery complex looks something like this from this side.

The middle and eastern parts, meanwhile, feature another large chunk of the outside of the Klementinum (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/15/prague-1-day-197-seminarska/).

While number 12 in the street is the New City Hall (not to be confused with the New Town Hall – https://x.com/ed__ley/status/1650018266486636544…)… but I’m scheduled to talk about that on day 203, so I’ll shut up for now.

Ditto the Municipal Library.

And, as today is kind of an milestone: I think there are 87 streets left to write about in Prague 1, but this may have a margin of error.