What's in a Prague street name

Herálecká I (which was lacking the Roman numeral at that time) was built in 1941.

Herálec is a village of about 1,200 people in the Vysočina Region, about 12 kilometres southwest of Havlíčkův Brod (see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/12/26/prague-3-day-122-havlickovo-namesti/ to learn about the Havlíček part).

The earliest written mention that we know of is from a Papal document dated 1226. It had fortresses – probably three – and one of these was used by Teutonic Knights.

Somebody involved with the village – possibly a Teutonic knight, given the name – was called Herhart, and Herhálec is therefore his place.

People born in Herálec include the realist painter Adolf Kosárek (1830-1859; see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-54-kosarkovo-nabrezi/) and the writer and translator Jan Zábrana (1931-1984).

Also, in 1882, one Antonín Bláha was born here. A violinist, he emigrated to the US and joined the Philadelphia Orchestra, and later the San Francisco Symphony. His grandson, John E. Blaha, would become a NASA astronaut who took part in five space missions.

The ‘I’ in the street name indicates the news I/you might have been dreading: we also have Herálecká II, III and IV round here. I’ve thought of a way of getting round this, and which also solves a question I’d been asking myself about these posts for about a year. More on that tomorrow.