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: Slovakia
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Tajovského was built in 1969. Jozef Alojz Gregor was born in Tajov, a village near Banská Bystrica, in 1874 – ten years after someone else we recently wrote about was born there (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/09/11/prague-4-day-442-murgasova/). This is the house he grew up in. After he finished school in Banská Bystrica in 1889, he trained to be a…
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Hečkova was built in 1975. František Hečko was born in Suchá nad Parnou, near Trnava in Slovakia, in 1905; his schooling and tertiary education took him to Modra, Bratislava, Košice and Prague. He started publishing poetry and prose in various Slovak periodicals; these often covered social themes and village life. His first collection of poems,…
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Moysesova was built in 1969. Štefan Moyzes (which seems to be how his name is spelt in most sources online, rather than ‘Moyses’) was born in Veselé, near Piešťany, which, in turn, is near Trnava in present-day Slovakia. He completed school there, and started to study philosophy at the local seminary, before continuing his studies…
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Sládkovičova was built in 1969. Andrej Braxatoris was born in Krupina, near Banská Bystrica in present-day Slovakia, in 1820. He started his schooling in Krupina, finished it in Bratislava, and then studied at the University of Halle from 1843 to 1844. He also had his first (patriotic) poems published in 1842 in the almanach Nitra,…
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Jánošíkova was built in 1969. Juraj Jánošík was born in Terchová, near Žilina in Slovakia, in 1688. Around 1706, he joined the army of Francis II Rákóczi, a Hungarian nobleman who had been waging a war of independence against the Habsburgs since 1703. Within a couple of years, however, he had joined the Imperial Army…
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Murgašova was built in 1969. Jozef Murgaš was born in Tajov, near Banská Bystrica in Slovakia, in 1864 (photo taken from Wikimedia Commons, credit to Peter Zelizňák). Having finished his schooling in Banská Bystrica, he went to Bratislava to study at the seminary from 1880 to 1882, then moving to Esztergom (now in Hungary) to…
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Ružinovská was built in 1969. Ružinov is a borough in eastern Bratislava, with a population of about 84,000 people. The area has been settled for at least 5,500 years. One village, Prievoz, developed next to one of two fords over which it was possible to cross the Danube. Agricultural until the late 19th century, the…
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Hurbanova was built in 1969. Jozef Ľudovít Hurban was born in Beckov, now in the Trenčín region of Slovakia, in 1817, the son of a Lutheran priest (photo taken from Wikimedia Commons, credit to Peter Zelizňák). Initially home-schooled, he attended school in Trenčín, followed by the Lutheran Lyceum in Bratislava, where he spent ten years…
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Bernolákova was built in 1969. Anton Bernolák was born in Slanica, a now-extinct village in the Orava region of Slovakia, in 1762. He studied theology in Vienna and Bratislava, where he studied at the general seminary. While at the seminary, he became a big supporter of the Enlightenment reforms of Maria Theresa and Joseph II,…
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Štúrova was built in 1969. Ľudovít Velislav Štúr was born in Uhrovec, a village near Trenčín, Slovakia, in 1815. His father, Samuel, had moved from Trenčín to take up a position as a teacher. Originally educated by his father, Ľudovít moved to Ráb (present-day Győr, Hungary) in 1827 to study at the gymnasium. A Slovak-born…
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Poberova was built in 1935. We’ve been on a bit of a break, so let’s recap some key information. Alois Jirásek was a writer of historical novels and plays; these were written at a time when the Czech nation was seriously (re-)discovering itself. He has a square named after him in Prague 2: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/01/prague-2-day-154-jiraskovo-namesti/. As…
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Aksamitova was built in 1932. We don’t know anything about Petr Aksamit’s life before 1440, when he was put in command of the Brotherhood / bratříci troops in Upper Hungary (present-day Slovakia). These bratříci were former Hussite fighters, operating as independent units, from 1445 to 1467, not only in today’s Slovakia but in its neighbouring…
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A street with this name was founded in Braník in 1935, but was destroyed in 1990 during construction works. In 1991, this street – about a kilometre away from the original Jiskrova – was given the name instead. Internet searches indicate that it was originally part of Modřanská (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/09/29/prague-4-day-185-modranska/), but the map above isn’t helping…
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Mojmírova was built in 1892. Slavs started arriving on the territory of present-day Czechia in the 5th century; this was a gradual process, happening in several waves. We know that a king called Sámo formed the first West Slavic state – Samo’s Empire, in the 600s (from 623 or 631 to 658). It was most…
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Originally published on X on 12 June 2024. Milan Rastislav Štefánik was born in Košariská, a village nowadays in the Trenčín Region of Slovakia, in 1880. He was the son of an evangelical priest, Pavol Štefánik, who raised his children to be interested in Slovak history and culture. Leaving his village at nine, he went…
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Originally published on X on 23 March 2024. A ‘calta’ is a a type of medieval Bohemian pastry. They had some sort of ‘braided’ design on them, which means I’m currently picturing a hot cross bun, but probably more intricate. Google results for this pastry reveal more hits over in Slovakia than here, where it…
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Originally published on X on 14 March 2024. ‘Jiljí’ is the Czech version of ‘Aegidius’. This is a name that’s changed more than many others when entering other languages – in English, we know it as ‘Giles’. Saint Giles, meanwhile, was born in Athens and is said to have founded the Abbey of Saint-Gilles in…
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Originally published on X on 26 January 2024. George, not Denzel, Dinah or Poussey. I could tell the George Washington story, but you might already know it quite well and/or feel it’s not got enough/any Czech connections (it won’t shock you to learn that GW never set foot in Bohemia). So let’s go looking for…
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Originally published on X on 10 September 2023. The Ordo Fratrum Minorum Capuccinorum / Order of Friars Minor Capuchin was founded in 1525, when a friar called Matteo Serafini decided that friars should go back to behaving in a way which their founder, St Francis of Assisi, would’ve approved of. Persecuted for this, they were…
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Originally published on X on 18 February 2023. Františka Lenocha was built in 2009. František Lenoch was born in 1898. Graduating from Charles University’s Faculty of Medicine in 1923, he later qualified in physiatry, balneology and internal medicine. In the 1930s, he worked in Trenčianske Teplice, a spa town in Slovakia, and stayed in Slovakia…
