What's in a Prague street name

U Habrovky was built in 1935.

Once upon a time, there was a vineyard here; a homestead was added to it, and was named Habrovka. One building from the homestead survives: https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habrovka_(usedlost)#/media/Soubor:Habrovka_(02).jpg (picture by Alenka Pokorná).

This was presumably named after ‘habr’, or hornbeam, i.e. a hardwood tree in the plant genus Carpinus (there are 45 accepted species, of which three exist in Europe).

At the start of WW2, it was decided that the land should be used to construct a wooden church, dedicated to St Francis of Assisi and opened in 1941: https://www.kudyznudy.cz/aktivity/kostel-sv-frantiska-z-assisi.

Hear ‘Habrovka’ these days, and you might think of its annual music and theatre festival. This post is very well-timed, as that’s on in a couple of weeks and looks very interesting indeed: https://www.habrovka.cz/.

For another Church of Francis of Assisi, see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/11/08/prague-1-day-250-na-frantisku/.