What's in a Prague street name

Novodvorská was created in 1935 through the merger of two streets: Hlavní (Main) and Vozová (which is related to ‘vůz’, meaning wagon).

Once upon a time, there was a farmstead (in present-day Lhotka, also in Prague 4). Its name was Nový dvůr (New Court). It later became a monastery.

After that, it served, at different times, as a poorhouse, apartments for rent and a crafts centre.

In the late 18th century, the entire area became knows as Nové dvory (New Courts). The original building itself survives, and a proposal to demolish it was rejected in 2019.

The building got some unwelcome publicity in January 2006, when František Mrázek, known as the “Godfather of Czech Organized Crime”, was shot dead by an unknown assailant outside the building, where one of his companies was registered.

Almost exactly two months later (and unconnectedly, insofar as one can say that with confidence when a murder is unsolved), Novodvorská gained a shopping centre, Novo Plaza. It also had a cinema until 2008, although that was closed due to low attendance.

Novo Plaza is located in the Novodvorská housing estate, built between 1964 and 1969. That, too, made the news for the wrong reasons in 2009, when a man held two women hostage at the Komerční banka. Thankfully, they were released: https://www.idnes.cz/zpravy/cerna-kronika/lupic-drzel-v-bance-hodiny-rukojmi-pak-ho-policie-vylakala.A091216_110957_praha_cen.

Nové Dvory lacks a metro service, but this will change once the long-promised D line is finally up and running: https://www.dpp.cz/metro-d/stanice/stanice-nove-dvory.