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: Prague 4
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Podolské schody were built in 1925. There may be a proper street sign up at the top. These are the ‘Podolí Steps’, built around the same time as much everything else round here, when Podolí was newly part of Prague and expanding. The steps got a bit of attention in late 2023, when railings were…
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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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Vápencová was built in 1931. ‘Vápenec’ is limestone. If you’re looking to me for advice on anything scientific, you need to get off the internet now, but here goes: Limestone is a fine-grained to solid sedimentary rock, of which over 80% is composed of of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in the form of calcite or aragonite.…
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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…
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Nad Pekařkou was named in 1972. ‘Pekařka’ translates as ‘baker’ (female). It was also the name of a farmstead which came into being in the early 1800s and was located around here. It later gained an inn, Na Pekařce. In the second half of the 20th century, the area was used by Polygrafia, a printing…
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K sídlišti was built in 1935. Until 1952, the street was called V rovinách II. I’ll say no more until we get to V rovinách (‘I’ no longer required). A ‘sídliště’ is a settlement, but it’s also the term for a housing estate – a residential area with multi-storey residential buildings – panel houses, or,…
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Na Klaudiánce was built in 1906. The street sign is missing the accent mark, but everything else I can find suggests it should be there. Originally, there were vineyards around here, owned by the Vyšehrad Chapter (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/24/prague-2-day-94-k-rotunde/). Eventually – no later than 1843 – a farmstead appeared in the area. Its name was Klaudiánka. Later,…
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Na Hřebenech II was built in 1941. The street, obviously, got its name from the same source as Na hřebenech I (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/06/12/prague-4-day-115-na-hrebenech-i/). So let’s talk about the western part of Pankrác Plain, known as Kavčí hory, instead. A ‘kanec’ is a wild boar. According to Czech mythology, a man called Bivoj caught a ‘kanec’ in…
What's in a Prague street name 