What's in a Prague street name

V rovinách was built in 1935.

A ‘rovina’ is a ‘plain’, a ‘flat surface’, ‘flat land’, etc.

As far back as 1841, there were field tracks in Krč (where the southernmost tip of the road is located) which were called Rovina or V rovinách.

I was sceptical – there are some hills round here – but Google Maps reliably tells me that the 14-minute walk from one end of V rovinách to the other is mostly flat, albeit with some stairs.

Here’s some footage of someone getting arrested at number 48 in Případ pro zvláštní skupinu, a crime drama which was filmed in 1989 but not broadcast until 2003 (arrest is at 56:20).

The reason for the delay? The scriptwriter and detective fiction novelist, Ivan Gariš (1923-1996), was really called Antonín Prchal, and had been head of the State Security (StB) in the early 1950s, playing a key role in Operation Border Stone and the Slánský trial.

Which meant that, by 1990, this six-parter wasn’t really something Czechoslovak television was all that eager to broadcast.