What's in a Prague street name

Every street in Prague, one by one.

Jižní spojka was built in the 1980s, and given a name in 1992. Re: the lack of street sign, walking along the motorway until I found one didn’t quite appeal yesterday, and may not be all that legal.

‘Jižní spojka’ translates as ‘The Southern Link’ (as you can see from the map above, it links a good few places).

The idea for a major road round here didn’t come from people you would want it to – in 1939, the Nazis had it in mind as part of a long route connecting Nuremberg and Wrocław (at the time, Bohemia was part of the Nazi’s Protectorate in the Czech Lands, and Wrocław was still part of Germany).

However, the costs of the war meant that construction never started.

Construction of the highway as we know and, well, know it began in the early 1980s. The first section, between Barrandov Bridge (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/01/22/prague-4-day-287-barrandovsky-most/) and Chodov.

In the late 1980s, the section from Spořilov to Zahradní Město followed. Construction was completed at the end of 1997.

Jižní spojka has up to six lanes (I assume this varies in places, but, again, not a walk I was going to do), and has about 120,000 vehicles a day, making it the busiest road in the country.

It won’t surprise you to find out that internet searches for Jižní spojka will only really float your boat if you are into car accidents, people complaining about traffic, or both.

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2 responses to “Prague 4, day 422: Jižní spojka”

  1. Allan S avatar
    Allan S

    Exactly that. Everyone knows this road very well, no-one loves it. Great post.

    Like

    1. Ed avatar

      Thanks! I think this road is the single reason why I’ll be quite happy not to have to go to this part of Krč much longer.

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