What's in a Prague street name

Na Fidlovačce was built in 1906.

A fidlovačka is a tool that a cobbler – i.e. a person who makes or repairs shoes – uses to smooth leather.

The tool then gave its name to a spring festival which took place in the Nusle valley, by the Botič stream (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/26/prague-2-day-115-boticska/).

At this festival – which started in the late 1780s, and took place on the first Wednesday after Easter – cobblers would decorate a birch tree with flowers, ribbons and Easter eggs, and then placed, yes, a fidlovačka on top.

The writer Josef Kajetán Tyl was inspired to name one of his works after the tool and the festival (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/07/01/prague-2-day-53-tylovo-namesti/) – Fidlovaċka premiered at the Estates Theatre (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/09/prague-1-day-179-ovocny-trh/) on 21 December 1834.

In the briefest terms: two young people are in love, but one lives with her pro-German aunt, while the other lives with his father, who is decidedly pro-Czech. And a cobbler. All kinds of inconveniences happen, but they end up together.

One scene in the play happens at a fidlovačka, where a blind violinist called Mareš sings a song called Kde domov műj (Where my home is). This is how the scene appears in the 1930 film version of the play.

And as for the song? It’s fair to say it’s the part of the play that’s had the most enduring impact, as it’s the Czech national anthem.

And it was composed not by Tyl, but by František Škroup, whose square in Žižkov has some excellent stories behind it: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/02/26/prague-3-day-145-skroupovo-namesti/.

In 1902, when Nusle was developing fast, a public park – Nusle’s first – was created, and, in 1921, a theatre was added. It was named after Tyl, with locals frequently referring to it as Tyláček.

In 1944, the theatre was renamed Divadlo pod Vyšehradem – the Theatre under Vyšehrad – but reverting to its original name when the war ended. It operated as Hudební divadlo v Nuslích – Musical Theatre in Nusle – from 1963 to 1978, before falling into disrepair.

In 1995, reconstruction started, directed by the aptly-named Fidlovačka Foundation – and it was reopened, now called Divadlo na Fidlovačce, on 28 October 1998 (seventy years to the day since Czechoslovak independence). No prizes for guessing what play was shown on that day.

The theatre’s production of Fiddler on the Roof would run for over sixteen years, ending in 2015.

If you want to try and relive some of the Fidlovačka-related partying, the park is the home of the Nusle Beer Festival each September: https://www.facebook.com/NuselskePivniSlavnosti/.