Saints
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Prague 1, day 12: U Brusnice
Originally published on X on 3 September 2023. U Brusnice was built in 1910. Brusnice is a stream which has three sources, all in the vicinity of Břevnov Monastery. The most important one, Vojtěška, is named after St Vojtěch (or Adalbert of Prague), the country’s patron saint. Legend has it that this was the spot Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 8: Na baště sv. Tomáše
Originally published on X on 8 August 2023. Thomas was one of Jesus’s Twelve Apostles, specifically the one who had a particular talent for doubting. A ‘doubting Thomas’ in Czech is a nevěřící Tomáš. (Side note: in Polish, it’s a niewierny Tomasz, which would make most Czechs assume that Tom is cheating on you) To Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 6: Mariánské hradby (the Marian Walls)
Originally published on X on 6 August 2023. At the end of the Thirty Years’ War, if you’d asked a Swede what he thought about Prague, he might well have said ‘Det är verkligen lätt att komma in i staden och belägra den. Inga problem med det alls. Lokalbefolkningen verkade dock inte gilla oss’. In Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 2: Jiřská
Originally published on X on 2 August 2023. And, like yesterday’s (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/02/prague-1-day-1-u-svateho-jiri-st-georges-square/), the street also had similar but not identical names before 1870: U sv. Jiří (as the square is called now), Proti klášteru sv. Jiří (Against St George’s Convent, which sounds a bit like a protest) and Svatojiřská. It was also once known as Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 1: U svátého Jiří (St George’s Square)
Originally published on X on 1 August 2023. Before 1870, other variants of this name (Jiřské náměstí or Svatojiřské náměstí) were also in use. The story goes that George was born into a Greek Christian family in Cappadocia (in what is now Central Anatolia, i.e. Central Turkey) around 270. His father was an officer in Continue reading
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Prague 2, day 143: Náměstí Pod Emauzy
Originally published on X on 2 April 2023. Náměstí Pod Emauzy was built in 1925. In 1347, a year after the founding of Prague’s Old Town, Karel IV received permission from the Pope to found a Benedictine monastery in Podskalí. In the 1370s, the monastery was supplemented by a church: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/31/prague-2-day-140-pod-slovany/ Karel wanted the monastery Continue reading
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Prague 2, day 140: Pod Slovany
Originally published on X on 30 March 2023. Pod Slovany already existed by the 18th century; it was probably built much earlier than that. Until the 18th century, the street was called Ozerov, named after V Ozerově, a local garden, whose name, in turn, is probably related to ostrov (island). Until 1850, the road was Continue reading
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Prague 2, day 113: Apolinářská
Originally published on X on 3 March 2023. We don’t know exactly Apolinářská was built, but it could date back as far as the early 1300s. Until about 1860, the street was known as Věterná hora, Větrov nebo Na Větrově, after the local hill, Větrov, so called because it was known for getting pretty windy Continue reading
What's in a Prague street name 