What's in a Prague street name

Ludvíkova was built in 1935.

Josef Myslimír Ludvík was born in Dolany, near Náchod, in 1796. After studying theology at the seminary in Hradec Králové, he was ordained as a priest in 1819.

A year later, he became chaplain of Náchod Castle, staying in that role until 1832. He devoted much of his time to writing historical studies of both the city and the castle.

His writings were published in magazines which supported the Czech Nationalist Revival; in 1831, he co-founded Matice česká, a publishing house which was hugely influential in its dissemination of the Czech language.

Matice česká’s main founder was František Palacký (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/31/prague-2-day-145-palackeho-namesti/).

By 1846, Ludvík was serving in Boušín; he was attacked by a gang of thieves in that year. When the local authorities did very little to investigate this crime, the local inhabitants hunted the attackers down and killed some of them.

Ludvík retired in 1848, and started work on Památky hradu, města a panství Náchoda, i vlastníkův jeho (Monuments of the Castle, City and Manor of Náchod, and its Owners). He died of a stroke in 1856, not living to see his work’s publication later that year.

The reason this street is named after Ludvík is, once again, thanks to Alois Jirásek (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/01/prague-2-day-154-jiraskovo-namesti/).

Between 1896 and 1903, Jirásek published U nás (approximately ‘Where we live’, shall we say), a four-part chronicle taking place to a large extend in Náchod, and covering the Czech National Revival. The work includes Ludvík as one of its characters.