What's in a Prague street name

Every street in Prague, one by one.

Praha 4

  • Prague 4, day 173: Bohuslava Martinů

    Bohuslava Martinů was built in 1966. Bohuslav Martinů was born in a church in Polička (near Pardubice) in 1890. From 1906 to 1910, he attended the Prague Conservatory, studying the violin, the organ and composition, but didn’t complete his studies, partly because he was much more interested in exploring Prague (Bohuslav, I hear you). However,… Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 172: Hudečkova

    Hudečkova was built in 1965. Antonín Hudeček was born just outside Ředhošť, near Litoměřice, in 1872. After finishing school in Roudnice, he moved to Prague in 1887 to study at the Academy of Fine Arts (AVU). In 1895 – and after a two-stint of studying in Munich from 1891 to 1893 – he set up… Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 171: Perlitová

    Perlitová was built in 1977. ‘Perlit’ is perlite – an amorphous volcanic glass with a high water content, and which, unusually, expands significantly upon heating. It’s used a lot in construction and manufacturing, for example in ceiling tiles, insulation, concrete and lightweight plasters. In the case of this street, a construction cooperative called Perlit-dom took… Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 170: Nad kolonií

    Nad kolonií was built in 1947. We’re not out of the emergency colony tales that have been told in recent days: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/09/08/prague-4-day-166-nad-ondrejovem/. In order to compensate for the lack of new content: a ‘kolonie’ would also be a ‘rookery’ (if you’re talking about, for example, ravens, penguins or seals). Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 169: V Ondřejově

    V Ondřejově was named in 1935. Emergency colony time again; same one that was discussed, briefly, on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/09/08/prague-4-day-166-nad-ondrejovem/. In order to make sure today’s post isn’t completely devoid of new information: Ondřejov is also the name of a former village which is now part of Prague-East. It’s mainly known for the Ondřejov Observatory, principal observatory… Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 168: Nad vrstvami

    Nad vrstvami was built in 1926. ‘Nad vrstvami’ literally translates as ‘Above the layers’. On which: see the almost identically-named https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/09/06/prague-4-day-164-na-vrstvach/. Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 167: V rovinách

    V rovinách was built in 1935. A ‘rovina’ is a ‘plain’, a ‘flat surface’, ‘flat land’, etc. As far back as 1841, there were field tracks in Krč (where the southernmost tip of the road is located) which were called Rovina or V rovinách. I was sceptical – there are some hills round here –… Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 166: Nad Ondřejovem

    Nad Ondřejovem was named in 1935. In the 1920s, Prague experienced unprecedented growth. For example, Podolí, which had had 4,048 inhabitants in 1910, had 8,097 in 1930, i.e. its population was exactly twice as much, plus one extra person, as it had been twenty years earlier. This kind of population growth meant additional housing was… Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 165: Dvouramenná

    Dvourammená was built in the 1930s, but not named until 1947. ‘Dvou’ at the start of the word would translate as ‘two’ – ‘dvoupokojový’ means ‘two-roomed’, ‘dvousložkový’ means ‘two-component’, ‘dvourychlostní’ means ‘two-speed’, and so on. Meanwhile, a ‘rameno’ is a shoulder if it’s on you or me, a ‘branch’ if it relates to a river,… Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 164: Na vrstvách

    Na vrstvách was built in 1935. You can translate ‘vrstva’ in several different ways – it’s a ‘layer’ (e.g. of clothing), or, if we were dealing with paint, it’s a ‘coat’. Then, if you’re talking about society, it’s a stratum or class. In the case of this street name, it would be something like ‘heights’,… Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 163: Kaplická

    Kaplická was built in 1962. Kaplice is a town in South Bohemia, 20 kilometres southeast of Český Krumlov. It’s named after the Chapel of St Mary, although that no longer exists. The earliest written mention dates from 1257, when Pope Alexander IV gave a church in the town permission to sell indulgences. In 1382, Kaplice… Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 162: Nad cihelnou

    Nad cihelnou was built in 1935. A ‘cihelna’ is a brickyard, or a brickworks. In the 1800s, Podolí became well known for its industries; as well as its limestone mining (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/06/20/prague-4-day-122-vapencova/), it had a sawmill, and, around here (from about 1872 onwards), a brickyard. The brickyard lasted until about 1945. There are some great old… Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 161: Za Pekařkou

    Za Pekařkou was built in 1978. You might have guessed where this is going. Pod Pekařkou is below what was once Pekařka, a farmstead (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/09/02/prague-4-day-160-pod-pekarkou/). Nad Pekařkou is above the same former farmstead (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/06/16/prague-4-day-119-nad-pekarkou/). And Za Pekařkou is behind it. To see what the crossroads of Pod and Za looked like in 1989, take a… Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 160: Pod Pekařkou

    Pod Pekařkou was built in 1935. On day 119, we learnt about Pekařka, a 19th-century farmstead. That day’s street – Nad Pekařkou – was above where the farmstead once stood (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/06/16/prague-4-day-119-nad-pekarkou/). Pod Pekařkou is, yes, beneath said farmstead (and is about 35-40 years older than Nad Pekařkou. The perils of covering these streets in an… Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 159: Ke Hlásce

    Ke Hlásce was named in the 1930s. Type ‘hláska’ into most translation tools, and they’ll start telling you about a phone. However, they’re not talking about a telephone – in this sense, a ‘phone’ is any distinct speech sound. As in phonetics, phonemes, homophones, and so on. However, a ‘hláska’ is also a watchtower, usually… Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 158: Terasovitá

    Terasovitá was built in 1978. ‘Terasovitá’ can be translated as ‘terraced’ or ‘tiered’. And the residences in the street, built in the 1960s and 1970s, have some quite pleasing (and quite southern European-looking?) terraces, as best evidenced by https://pamatkovykatalog.cz/terasove-domy-20605427. Apparently, you can refer to these as an example of ‘green brutalism’: https://praha.camp/magazin/detail/praha-kopcovita-aneb-jak-se-bydli-ve-svahu-kde-najdete-top-5-terasovych-domu. Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 156: Jeremenkova

    Jeremenkova has exited in its current form since 1952; before then, it consisted of two separate streets called Dvorecká (built 1906) and Pod vrstami (created 1938). More on those in future posts, as there are still streets with those names. Andrei Ivanovich Yeremenko was born to a peasant family in Markivka, near Kharkiv, in 1892.… Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 155: Dvorecké náměstí

    Dvorecké náměstí was built in 1930. The settlement of Dvorce (German: Dworetrz) was first mentioned in writing in 1222. Originally, its properties were owned by the Vyšehrad Chapter (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/24/prague-2-day-94-k-rotunde/), but, during the Hussite Wars, they were taken by the people of Prague, although they would be returned to the Chapter by 1500. In 1547, they… Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 154: U vápenné skály

    U vápenné skály was built in 1925. This translates as ‘by the limestone rock’, so go and take a look at https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/06/20/prague-4-day-122-vapencova/. Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 153: U Kublova

    U Kublova was named in 1906. Until 1947 (with the inevitable break during the Nazi occupation), the street was called Riegrova, as in the early leader of the Czech nationalist movement, František Ladislav Rieger (1818-1903), who’s also given his name to that park in Vinohrady. Kublov, meanwhile, was the name of a settlement round here,… Continue reading

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