What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on X on 30 May 2024.

Around here, we’re near the end (or start) of one of the oldest trade routes between Prague (specifically Old Town Square), Bohemia and Germany.

Therefore, around the 15th century, the Obecní dvůr (Municipal Court) was built here, as a yard owned by the Municipality of Prague. However, its history isn’t all that well documented, and the first written mention of Obecní dvůr is from the 1700s.

One historian says it consisted of four farm buildings, shops selling cloth, a brewery, a malthouse and a large garden.

We can say, with more certainty, that, in the 18th century, it had stables (two of which survive), and was used to store hay, fodder and coal.

In the 1820s, it was used by fire patrols, although it would be another three decades before Prague had a professional fire department. This, too, was located here (until 1926).

In the early 20th century, during the rehabilitation of Josefov, a large chunk of the court was demolished, and, from 1926, it was used partially as residences, partially for small businesses.

It underwent reconstruction in the last decade: https://www.stavbaroku.cz/printDetail.do?Dispatch=ShowDetail&siid=1504.

U obecního dvora includes Dům U Censorů, which dates back to at least 1403, but was given its current form in 1795. It was, indeed, where censorship of books was carried out.

It was also once the home of the Austrian mathematician Christian Doppler (1803-53), who was a professor at Prague Polytechnic and described the Doppler effect (which states that the perceived frequency of a wave depends on the source and the observer).

Meanwhile, next door, we’ve got the birthplace of Josef Mánes (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/01/18/prague-2-day-11-manesova/). His father Antonín worked in a studio in U Censorů.