What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 6 May 2024.

A ‘břeh’ is a coast or shore (if you’re dealing with the sea), or a bank (if you’re dealing with a river, which we clearly are here).

And the street is so called because it leads from the right bank of the Vltava to the Old New Synagogue (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/26/prague-1-day-218-cervena/).

In the Middle Ages, the southern part of the street was called Schielesova (presumably a Mr Schiesel owned some property here), whereas the southern part was called Břehová or Pobřežní (which means much the same thing).

There was also a square round here until the early 20th century rehabilitation of the district, first known as V hampejze (‘hampejz’ means ‘brothel’), and later as Poštovské due to the local post office.

Number 7 on Břehová is the Faculty of Nuclear and Physical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague (or FJFI ČVUT v Praze, which isn’t really any snappier).

Whereas I know I also took pictures of number 8 for a reason, but that reason might just be that it’s a very attractive building.

Incidentally, ‘tichá voda břehy mele’ literally translates as ‘quiet water grinds the banks’, and is the Czech equivalent of ‘still waters run deep’.