What's in a Prague street name

Every street in Prague, one by one.

Category: Farmsteads

  • Originally published on Twitter on 13 November 2022. Na Smetance was built in 1889. Smetanka (translation: ‘Dandelion’) is a homestead and vineyard that used to lie in this spot. It’s old enough for it to be unclear when it was built. What we do know is that it housed a pub, and, from 1859, was…

  • Originally published on Twitter on 23 July 2022. Pod Parukářkou was built in 1997. Parukářka is the name of a former vineyard and farm, founded in the 15th century and located on the eastern part of Vrch svatého Kříže / Hill of the Holy Cross, though it was initially called Hejtmánka. From 1804, the homestead…

  • Originally published on Twitter on 3 July 2022. K Červenému dvoru was built in 1925. Červený dvůr (Red Court) is another local settlement that no longer exists. It’s recorded that there were vineyards here as early as the mid-15th century. By the mid-18th century, there was a farming estate called Direktorka. Direktorka was renamed Červený…

  • Originally published on Twitter on 2 July 2022. Na Viktorce was built in 1925. A farming settlement was founded here in 1873. From the end of the nineteenth century onwards, it was owned by one Viktor Kos (1858-1911), hence the name. Kos set up a brickyard here… which now has me playing a game of…

  • Originally published on Twitter on 8 June 2022. Nad Ohradou was built in 1975. You can find out about Ohrada, a vineyard that was first mentioned in 1455, and which this street is ‘above’, here: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/19/prague-3-day-11-na-ohrade/. Except that there’s actually new stuff to say about Ohrada in the month since I originally tweeted about it.…

  • Originally posted on Twitter on 6 May 2022. Pražačka was built in 1947. It’s named after *another* farmstead (and vineyard) that no longer exists. The origin of the name ‘Pražačka’ isn’t clear, but original maps list the name as ‘Brasatscha’ – so, surprisingly, the name probably doesn’t have anything to do with ‘Praha’. The vineyard…

  • Originally published on 3 May 2022. Na Vápence was built in 1925. Vápenka translates as ‘lime works’ or ‘limekiln’; it was also the name of a farmstead lying where the street is now. Presumably there was formerly a limestone quarry in the area, hence the name of the settlement. Apparently it stretched across Židovské pece…