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: Stations
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Čerčanská was named in 1947. Čerčany is a village in Central Bohemia, 8 km south of Benešov and, in good traffic, only about half an hour’s drive south-east of Prague. It lies on the Sázava river (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/02/18/prague-2-day-31-sazavska/). The earliest mention of Čerčany – then called Černčany – that we know of dates from 1356. It…
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U krčského nádraží was built in 1925. We spoke briefly about the present and future of Praha-Krč Station (nádraží) on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2026/08/15/prague-4-day-420-pred-nadrazim/. Now it’s time to talk about its past. Back in 1882, Modřany (south of Krč, in Prague 12; discussed on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/09/29/prague-4-day-185-modranska/) was known for its sugar factory. Which made a train connection to Prague…
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Před nádražím was built in 1977. Yes, Krč has a train station. If you haven’t been through the station, that’s not too much of a surprise – only one route, the one to/from Dobříš, runs though it. I’ll tell the story of the station later, as: a) there’s another street named after it; b) I’ve…
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Pikovická was built in 1991. Well, I say ‘built’ – it’d be more accurate to say it already existed in 1991, which was the year it was separated from Modřanská (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/09/29/prague-4-day-185-modranska/). Pikovice is a village on the bank of the Sázava river; the earliest written mention that we have dates back to 1310. It changed hands…
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Na Pankráci was built in 1900. Even as an ex-Londoner who used to travel to Brussels an awful lot, it somehow took me until 2024 to put two and two together and work out that Pankrác is St Pancras. Pancras of Rome converted to Christianity, and was beheaded for this around 303, aged just fourteen.…
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K podjezdu was built in 1937. A ‘podjezd’ is an underpass, and this street leads to (‘k’) one. And this particular underpass leads to Praha-Vršovice railway station, which, as you might have guessed from its name, is not in Nusle (nor is it in Prague 4, so there may be a bit of a wait…
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Originally publishe3d on X on 12 July 2024. The first written mention of Těšnov, a settlement just outside the New Town walls, and only consisting of a few guardhouses, dates from 1437. (Photo of the Pořící gate before its destruction in 1875) You might remember that Pořící – immediately to the west – was largely…
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Originally published on X on 27 June 2024. Originally, part of the street was called Florenc – more on that tomorrow – and another part was called Slaměná (‘sláma’ is straw, which was sold round here). In the 1700s, the street became known as Blátivá, then as Na blátě, after the surrounding gardens – ‘bláto’…
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Originally published on X on 27 January 2024. Jan Opletal was born on either 31 December 1914 or 1 January 1915 to a poor family in Lhota nad Moravou, near Olomouc. He was the youngest of eight children. He had to work from a very early age to support his family, but also excelled at…
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Originally published on X on 8 March 2023. Vyšehradská was created in 1869 by joining the roads from Karlovo náměstí to Trojická and from Trojická to Botič. We’ve covered quite a lot of the history of Vyšehrad already – see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/23/prague-2-day-93-libusina/, https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/24/prague-2-day-94-k-rotunde/ and https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/24/prague-2-day-95-v-pevnosti/ for the goods. And, even though it’s not on this street,…
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Originally published on Twitter on 4 July 2022. U Nákladového nádraží was built in 1935 but not given a name until 1947. Nákladové nádraží Žižkov, or Žižkov freight railway station, is the biggest functionalist industrial building in Prague and a notorious Destroyer of Neighbourhoods (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/21/prague-3-day-70-na-viktorce/ and https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/22/prague-3-day-71-k-cervenemu-dvoru/). It also gets to have *two* tram stops…
