What's in a Prague street name

Every street in Prague, one by one.

Category: Rotundas

  • Originally published on X on 6 March 2024. In this spot, there was once a rotunda devoted to St Lawrence (Vavřinec). In 1230, the Knights Templar bought the land and had the rotunda expanded into a church. Pope Clement V disbanded the Knights Templar in 1312, largely due to the machinations of Philip IV of…

  • Originally published on X on 22 February 2024. Originally, this street was called U sv. Kříže (St Cross), named after a rotunda which was built around 1125. Pleasingly, it’s still there and was done up in 2022. In the 1600s, the street was renamed ‘Horní Solní’ due to the presence of a nearby salt warehouse.…

  • Originally published on X on 28 April 2023. Na Rybníčku was built in 1844. Until 1880, the street was known either as Nová Štěpánská (due to its proximity to the church described in https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/01/prague-2-day-167-stepanska/), or, at other times, as Štěpánský hřbitov, after the church’s cemetery. Rybníček, or Rybník, both meaning pond, is a settlement which…

  • Originally published on X on 8 February 2023. It’s not clear when K Rotundě was built. Our Vyšehrad stories have all been legend-based so far. So now it’s time for some stuff that we can be confident actually happened. By the year 1000, Vyšehrad had started to be mentioned in writing. We know that, around…