What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 3 May 2024.

Paříž is the capital of Francie, and I’m now realising that I somehow haven’t been since 2016. Here are two photos from that day.

I’ve mentioned the ‘asanace’ (rehabilitation) of Prague at the start of the 20th century several times, mainly to talk about things that were destroyed, but things were created, too – this boulevard being one of them.

It’s hardly a small street, but apparently it was meant to be even longer – stretching as far as the National Museum and becoming Prague’s answer to the Champs-Elysées. But these things are usually only possible when financing is available and there is public support.

The boulevard was originally called Mikulášská třída, named after the church on Old Town Square (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/19/prague-1-day-205-mikulasska/).

In 1926, it was renamed Pařížská, while Vinohrady got a French Street in the same year: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/03/16/prague-2-day-45-francouzska/.

For the story of the Great Allied Street Renaming Of 1926, see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/12/23/prague-2-day-1-italska/.

Anyway, Pařížská is meant to be all sophisticated and Parisian and stuff, and I will concede that its trees are nice. Streets in Prague 1 don’t tend to have enough trees.

Pařížská also feature a lot of bling, which excites me somewhat less.

Property rent here is a not-at-all alarming EUR 2,700 per square metre per year, making Pařížská the eleventh most expensive shopping street in Europe, and the nineteenth in the world: https://www.cushmanwakefield.com/en/czech-republic/news/2023/11/main-streets-across-the-world-2023.

I recommend ignoring the shop displays and looking a bit further up instead.

There’s also a fine synagogue which we haven’t covered yet – but tomorrow’s post will be remarkably short if I talk about it now, so see you tomorrow for that part.

Finally, if I were ever to do What’s In A Paris Street Name, I would absolutely have to start with… maybe the best street name ever?

(photo taken in 2011, as if part of me knew I’d be doing this series over a decade later)