What's in a Prague street name

Ružinovská was built in 1969.

Ružinov is a borough in eastern Bratislava, with a population of about 84,000 people. The area has been settled for at least 5,500 years.

One village, Prievoz, developed next to one of two fords over which it was possible to cross the Danube. Agricultural until the late 19th century, the area began to take on an industrial character.

It wasn’t until the 20th century, however, that the name Ružinov, short for ‘Ružový ostrov’ – Rose Island – or ‘Rosenheim’ began to be used (this was an island that had once existed in the Danube). Prievoz was incorporated into Bratislava in 1946.

After WWII, Ružinov began to expand significantly. Workers’ colonies were built at Nivy and Trnávka. Ružinov gained its first housing estate (500 bytov – 500 flats) in the 1950s, and a further four (Štrkovec, Ostredky, Trávniky, and Pošeň) in the 1960s.

The 1980s saw the additional of a further housing estate, Starý Ružinov. Perhaps unusually, Ružinov managers to be both very industrial and very green.

In terms of educational facilities, Ružinov includes the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences of Comenius University, and one of Slovakia’s few vocational schools for the hearing impaired.

In terms of transport, there is a train station that no trains currently stop at, but the D1 motorway runs along the edge of the district.

Perhaps more significantly, Ružinov is one of three districts in which Bratislava’s Airport, M. R. Štefánik Airport (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/11/09/prague-1-day-254-stefanikuv-most/) is located.

For tourists, Ružinov offers Zlaté Piesky (Golden Sands), a popular lakeside recreation area. There’s also Avion Shopping Park, a shopping centre so huge that – if I’m right in thinking this is the one I got lunch at when I had a flight from Bratislava in 2019 – it has its own ice hockey rink.

In July 1976, Zlaté Piesky was the scene of one of Czechoslovakia’s worst air disasters: a Prague-Bratislava flight crashed into the lake while trying to land. Only three of the 79 people on board survived.