What's in a Prague street name

Every street in Prague, one by one.

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I could talk about myself for ages, or I could point out that https://english.radio.cz/ed-ley-englishman-recording-stories-pragues-streets-one-one-8806941 is over two years old but still largely stands (other than the Twitter links).

Category: Central Bohemia

  • Prague 4, day 366: Bystřická

    Bystřická was built in 1941. However, until 1960, it was part of Humpolecká (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/04/20/prague-4-day-362-humpolecka/). Bystřice is a town of 4,700 people in Central Bohemia, about six kilometres south of Benešov. The earliest written mention that we know of is from about 1350. It developed due to its location on a trade route. In 1471, George…

  • Prague 4, day 365: Krchlebská

    Krchlebská was built in 1941. Its second street sign, meanwhile, is one I won’t forget in a hurry. Krchleby is a village in Central Bohemia, six kilometres north of Nymburk, and about a sixty-kilometre drive to the northeast from Prague. The origins of Krchleby’s name have never quite been agreed on. ‘Krch’ means ‘left’ in…

  • Prague 4, day 364: Neveklovská

    Neveklovská was built in 1941. Neveklov is a town of 2,800 people in Central Bohemia, about 12 km east of Benešov and, therefore, about 30 km north of Prague. The earliest written mention we know of dates from 1285, and we assume it was once the court of somebody called Nevykl or similar. That written…

  • Prague 4, day 341: Růženínská

    Růženínská was built in 1981. We start this story in Chocerady, a town of about 1,400 people, 27 kilometres southeast of Prague. Chocerady has five municipal parts; the second-largest of these is called Vlkovec (with 169 inhabitants, it’s a lot smaller than the largest, also called Chocerady, and which has 863 inhabitants). Vlkovec was once…

  • Prague 2, day 31: Sázavská

    Originally published on Twitter on 7 December 2022. Sázavská was built in 1889. Sázava is the name both of a river in the Vysočina and Central Bohemian regions, and of a town of 3,700 people on its banks, in the Benešov district. The proto-Slavic verb sázeti means something like ‘to depose a lot of sediment’.…

  • Prague 2, day 17: Třebízského

    Originally published on Twitter on 23 November 2022. Třebízského was built around 1903. From 1940 to 1945, this was Krušnohorksá, after Krušné hory / the Erzgebirge / the Ore Mountains, which separate Bohemia and Saxony. Václav Beneš was born in Třebíz, near Slaný, in 1849. The school he went to there was attended at the…

  • Prague 2, day 15: Blanická

    Originally published on Twitter on 21 November 2022. Horní (Upper) Blanická was built in 1889; Dolní (Lower) Blanická was built in 1896. They became one street in 1948. From 1940 to 1945, this was Schlözerova, after the aristocratic von Schlözer family, which included August Ludwig (1735-1809, a historian) and Dorothea (1770-1825, the first woman in…

  • Prague 3, day 182: Kolínská

    Originally published on Twitter on 22 October 2022. Kolínská was built in 1911. It was founded as a royal city, probably in the mid-1200s, by Přemysl Otakar II, because what wasn’t. There’s even a fresco in the Town Hall there, showing him supervising the construction (picture taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kolin_town_hall_fresco_1.png). In 1421, the city was captured…

  • Prague 3, day 181: Libická

    Originally published on Twitter on 21 October 2022. Libická was built in 1911. Libice nad Cidlinou, population 1,200, is a village in Nymburk district. It was first mentioned in 981, although archeological finds indicate that the land the village lies on was already inhabited in the Bronze Age. In the 10th century, the Slavník family…

  • Prague 3, day 180: Boleslavská

    Originally published on Twitter on 20 October 2022. Boleslavská was built in 1910. Stará Boleslav came into existence in the early 10th century, when the Přemyšlids built a castle here to guard their Central Bohemian domain. A church was built too, dedicated to Arab physicians and two Christian martyrs, Saints Cosmas and Damian. This church…

  • Prague 3, day 178: Čáslavská

    Originally published on Twitter on 18 October 2022. Čáslavská was built in 1910. Čáslav, population 10,000, is a town in Central Bohemia, in the Kutná Hora district. It was founded in 1264 by Přemysl Otakar II, who I am just going to start assume founded everything, including me. Initially on the side of the Catholics…

  • Prague 3, day 170: Kouřimská

    Originally published on Twitter on 10 October 2022. Kouřimská was built in 1925. Kouřim is *another* small town (1,900 people) in the Kolín district. The name is one accent mark away from being ‘kouřím’ (meaning ‘I smoke’), and, according to legend, Bohemian prince Lech (died 805) lit a fire here to let his ancestor Čech…

  • Prague 3, day 169: Zásmucká

    Originally published on Twitter on 9 October 2022. Zásmucká was built in 1935. Zásmuky is a town of 2,100 people, 16 km to the south-west of Kolín, first mentioned in 1285. Originally owned by the Zásmucký family (originally enough), it was acquired by the Šternberk clan, one of the oldest Bohemian noble families, in the…

  • Prague 3, day 120: Lipanská

    Originally published on Twitter on 22 August 2022. Lipanská was built before 1875. The Battle of Lipany, also known as the Battle of Český Brod, was fought on 30 May 1434. On one side, you had the Táborites (radical Hussites), led by Prokop the Great (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/24/prague-3-day-80-prokopovo-namesti/), and the similarly radical Sirotci (Orphans), led by Jan…