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: Podolí
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Podolská was built in 1906. In 1222, the royal chapter at Vyšehrad (see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/24/prague-2-day-94-k-rotunde/ for a little bit on that) published its founding charter. This mentioned that the chapter owned a court at Podolí – and makes it the oldest written mention of Podolí that we have. The settlement had its own church, (see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/07/10/prague-4-day-140-pod-vysehradem/,…
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Pod Vyšehradem is very old indeed, but wasn’t named until the 1940s. It is, quite literally, ‘below Vyšehrad’ – and, if you don’t know Vyšehrad, feel free to take a look through some of the Prague 2 posts, eg https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/24/prague-2-day-95-v-pevnosti/, https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/23/prague-2-day-93-libusina/ and https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/24/prague-2-day-94-k-rotunde/. There’s also one about Vyšehrad Street itself (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/26/prague-2-day-118-vysehradska/), but I think those…
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Rybářská was built in 1930. Recent posts such as https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/07/05/prague-4-day-137-podolske-nabrezi/ and https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/07/06/prague-4-day-138-podolsky-pristav/ remind us that we are by the Vltava. Also historically spending a lot of time by the river? Fishermen, or, in Czech, rybáři. If you’re into a bit of fishing/angling (rybářství) yourself, you will need a rybářský prut (a fishing rod), a fishing…
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Podolský přístav was built between 1867 and 1872. A ‘přístav’ is a port. This one was originally built for rafts; around 1890, it gained a protective dam, and started to be used for sports vessels. In 1894, the Czech Yacht Club set up a floating shipyard at the port. A German rowing club, Regatta, then…
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Podolské nábřeží has existed in its current form since 1990. From 1904 to 1906, the part of the embankment leading from the Vyšehrad Tunnel (mentioned on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/26/prague-2-day-122-podskalska/) to Podolská (which will get its own post in a couple of days) was called Vyšehradské nábřeží, ie the Vyšehrad Embankment. From 1906 to 1924, it was named…
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U podolského sanatoria was named in the 1940s. In 1909, a notable Czech doctor, Rudolf Jedlička (more on him on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/05/15/prague-4-day-95-u-jedlickova-ustavu/) decided to build a modern institute – the Prague Sanatorium – to serve wealthy clients. Designed by architect Rudolf Kříženecký, it consisted of five interconnected buildings, with specialist institutes, operating rooms and various baths.…
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Brabcova was built in 1938. It’s not been easy to find information on this one. Apparently, Karel Brabec was born in 1909, was a labourer, and a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. He was executed in 1942 for taking part in resistance activities. Before 1952, the street was named after Hynek Krušina z…
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Ve svahu was built in 1925. A ‘svah’ is a slope or a hillside, and this street is, as you’ve already guessed, located on one. For vocabulary fans, a ‘lyžařský svah’ is a ski slope, whereas a steep slope would be a ‘příkrý svah’.
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Procházkova was built in 1933. The street is believed to be named after a soldier called Josef Procházka, killed during World War One. However, at least ten men with that name died during battle, and so it’s not possible to get more specific. This means it was not named after the composer and pianist Josef…
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Hoffmannova was built in 1925, but remained nameless until 1955. The whole namelessness thing starts to make sense when you see that it feels more like a ye olde village road than anything else. Karel Hoffmann was born to a poor family in Smíchov in 1872, initially living near Anděl, then at Bertramka. As a…
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Nad spádem was built in 1925. ‘Spád’ can be translated as ‘momentum, ‘speed’, ‘cadence’, ‘flow’ and much else besides. In the context of this street, it would be a ‘gradient’, ‘slope’, etc., and ‘Nad spádem’ denotes that the street is above one. Continuing the theme of publishing companies quite liking setting up their headquarters in…
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Lopatecká was built in 1929. Once upon a time, there was a homestead where the street is now. Its name was Lopatecká. In the 1920s, a modernist villa was built on the spot where the homestead had stood (at number seven). It was designed by the architect Eduard Hnilička. I’d love to talk about who…
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Voráčovská was built in 1925. Apparently a previous name for the immediately surrounding area – presumably because of someone whose surname was Voráček, but all the ones listed on Czech Wikipedia were born too late for it to be them. I’m going to assume there was a villa, a farm or a vineyard involved. Based…
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Na sypčině was built in 1938. The Czech for ‘sand’ is ‘písek’ (see also: a street named after the town of Písek: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/03/19/prague-3-day-175-pisecka/). ‘Písčina’, meanwhile, would translate as ‘sands’, a ‘sandy area’ or a ‘sandbank’, and ‘písčitý’ would translate as ‘sandy’. The name of the street derives from the nature of the ground on which…
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Na lysině was built in 1931. ‘Lysina’ isn’t in common use as a word in modern Czech, but it exists in present-day Slovak, where it’s a bald spot. In Czech, that would be a ‘pleš’. ‘Łysina’, in Polish, means the same thing, but can also be used colloquially to denote an area devoid of vegetation.…
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Doudova was built in 1925. Václav Douda was born in Podolí in 1886. He qualified as a teacher, while also training, and acting in a management capacity, at the Podolí Sokol (guide to the Sokols on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/26/prague-2-day-114-sokolska/). In 1913, he was part of the Czech team at the 6th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, which took…
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Pod Klaudiánkou was built in 1925. A pleasingly short one today, as I can just point you in the direction of https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/06/14/prague-4-day-117-na-klaudiance/. So, let’s take advantage of that and tell another story, that of the ‘číslo popisné’, literally ‘descriptive number’, AKA the unique number assigned to each building in Prague in addition to its street-specific…
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Na vápenném was built in the late 1930s, but not named until a few years later. Same limestone story as yesterday, so please take a look at https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/06/20/prague-4-day-122-vapencova/.
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U podolského hřbitova was named in the 1940s. Yesterday’s street name could be mistaken for being about a cemetery (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/06/17/prague-4-day-120-nad-cementarnou/); today’s is. There’s a street in Podolí which is called Pod Vyšehradem; it’ll get its own post soon enough, but for now it’s enough to say two things. Firstly, it is, indeed, below Vyšehrad. Secondly,…
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Nad cementárnou was built in 1935. False friend alert: a ‘cementárna’ is not a cemetery, even though one is nearby and has given its name to a street in the area. It’s a cement factory. Such a factory was opened in Podolí in 1871. It soon ran into financial difficulties, as the Vienna Stock Exchange…
What's in a Prague street name 