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: Malá Strana
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Originally published on X on 23 October 2023. You can read the long, devious, side-swapping story of Albrecht z Valdštejna here: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-46-valdstejnske-namesti/. But I’m also going to suggest that you take a look at the story of Johannes Kepler: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-19-keplerova/. Because, in 1608, a young Valdštejn was in Prague and, as was customary for anyone…
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Originally published on X on 22 October 2023. Albrecht Václav Eusebius z Valdštejna – usually called Albrecht von Wallenstein in English texts – was born in the Heřmanice Fortress, near Jaroměř, in 1583. His father was a nobleman who had fallen on hard times, and, by the age of eleven, Albrecht had become an orphan…
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Originally published on X on 21 October 2023. U Zlaté Studně translates as ‘At the Golden Well’. ‘So, where’s the well?’, I heard you ask. And, erm, it isn’t. Or, at least, not anymore, and I don’t know when/if it existed. Although an actual well isn’t here, if you zoom in on the façade of…
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Originally published on X on 20 October 2023. The earliest mention of a church round here dates from 1228. In 1285, King Václav II invited a group of Augustine monks to Prague and decided they needed a new, better church in the same location. It was devoted to Thomas the Apostle (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/07/prague-1-day-8-na-baste-sv-tomase/). The altar was…
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Originally published on X on 19 October 2023. Buckle up, kids, this one probably has a link to many of your least favourite Czechs. Because sněmovna is short for Poslanecká sněmovna, or ‘Chamber of Deputies’. In 1650, one Countess Markéta Anna Thunová purchased a building here, and the family bought two more in 1662 and…
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Originally published on the other place on 18 October 2023. A short one today, as befits a short street (only six addresses or thereabouts). Until the 19th century, the street was known as Ke stupňům (‘Towards the stairs’), with said stairs being these: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-40-zamecke-schody/). From 1829, it had the same name as the steps did…
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Originally published on X on 17 October 2023. In the 1300s, this area was given the hugely creative and cryptic name of ‘Pod stupni Pražského hradu’ (Under the steps of Prague Castle), and you can read about those steps here: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-40-zamecke-schody/ At some point, the name ‘Kavčí hora’ also appears, which will be hugely distracting…
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Originally published on X on 16 October 2023. You’ll have been down these (if you planned your sightseeing round Prague sensibly), or up them (if you didn’t). Back in the Middle Ages, there was a road here, aptly called Strmá cesta (Steep Road). At some point, these were replaced by the steps (which have basically…
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Originally published on X on 13 October 2023. This story starts in Mount Carmel, a mountain range on the northern coast of Israel in which the city of Haifa is located. In the 13th century, a group of men settled here and founded the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, living in…
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Originally published on X on 12 October 2023. In 1257, Přemysl Otakar II founded a town here, just below the castle, and gave it the Latin name of Nova civitas sub castro Pragensi (New City under Prague Castle), or just Nova civitas, or – and this is where you may get confused if you’re a…
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Originally published on X on 11 October 2023. We’re very much in ‘your friends and family who only visited Prague once have walked along here’ territory now. Jan Nepomuk Neruda was born on Újezd in Malá Strana in 1834. Four years later, his dad opened up a shop at U Dvou slunců (The Two Suns)…
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Originally published on X on 10 October 2023. Until the Middle Ages, this was the location of a stream, flowing from Strahov to the Vltava. This was then replaced with a street – Vlašská (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-31-vlasska/). Then, in the late 1700s, the marketplace on Malostranské náměstí was moved to here. And – as you might be…
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Originally published on X on 9 October 2023. And, today, I give you options. OPTION 1 Břetislav was born around 1002, the son of Oldřich and a woman who was not Oldřich’s wife (at least at the time). Dad (https://x.com/ed__ley/status/ed__ley/status/1618142655611047939…) became Duke of Bohemia in 1012, deposing (and blinding*) his brother Jaromír. * You’re welcome…
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Originally published on X on 3 October 2023. A vršek is the upper part of something, or a small hill. And if you want to know you Jan was, take a quick look at day 33: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-33-janska/. So this thread isn’t *too* brief, here’s one of the rare old-school German-language street signs you find round…
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Originally published on X on 1 October 2023. This part of Malá Strana used to be a separate settlement called Obora (meaning ‘enclosure’ or ‘forest’). It was first mentioned in 1278, but a sanctuary had already been founded here the century before that. That first mention in 1278 occurred because, at the time, Bohemia was…
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Originally published on X on 30 September 2023. Once upon a time, there was a Renaissance house in this street, owned by, amongst others, the House of Martinice, a noble family who claimed to have originated from the ancient Vršovci clan. A descendant of that family, Heinrich Clam-Martinic, would end up being one of the…
What's in a Prague street name 