What's in a Prague street name
Every street in Prague, one by one.
recent posts (search bar on main page for about a gazillion more)
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: Towers
-
Ve dvoře was built named around 1900. As mentioned yesterday (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/11/02/prague-4-day-217-na-mlejnku/), the Dominican Order of Saint Giles was given part of Braník in 1625, as part of Emperor Ferdinand II’s re-Catholicisation drive. However, Braník was outside the Prague city walls, and therefore suffered quite badly during the Thirty Years’ War. By 1650, reconstruction was sorely…
-
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…
-
Originally published on X on 17 June 2024. Something of a day off for me today, because I posted this yesterday: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/11/10/prague-1-day-258-nove-mlyny/. But, of course, the view of the tower from this street is different, so here you go.
-
Originally published on X on 16 June 2024. Before the New Town was founded in 1348, Prague got its water from public and private wells (there were aqueducts too, but these were only used for royal buildings and churches). Later, four waterworks were set up; the ones serving this part of the New Town were…
-
Originally published on X on 13 June 2024. The street is located where the easternmost part of the Old Town walls once stood (see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/11/09/prague-1-day-251-hradebni/). In the 1700s, the part nearer the river was called Náplavní or Náplavka, both referring to the riverbank. The southern part was called Trubní or Rourová – ‘trubka’ and ‘roura’…
-
Originally published on X on 11 April 2024. If you’ve got a vague memory of standing somewhere and thinking it must be the most crowded place in Prague, you may have been in this spot. In 1233, the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star / Rytířský řád Křižovníků s červenou hvězdou – Bohemia’s…
-
Originally published on X on 10 April 2024. So I guess anyone who felt I only mentioned the Klementinum very briefly yesterday will feel better now. The name comes from the Church of St Kliment, which the Dominicans moved into in 1227, when they also created a monastery. The monastery was severely damaged by fire…
-
Published on X on 2 and 3 April 2024 (there was a fair amount to say). Part 1: the history In 1338, John of Luxembourg (King of Bohemia from 1310 to 1346) gave the Old Town permission to build itself a town hall. This seemed like the perfect location, as a major market had existed…
-
Originally published on X on 24 March 2024. When the Old Town was still surrounded by fortifications, there was a gate here named after St Ambrose, as was a church on nearby Hybernská (see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/20/prague-1-day-134-hybernska/). The gate was then renamed Horská, because what is now Hybernská ultimately led to Kutná Hora. Once the Old Town…
-
Originally published on X on 2 February 2024. ‘Jindřich’ is Henry, and the two don’t seem so different once you realise that one of the German versions of ‘Henry’ is ‘Heinrich’. And one famous German Henry was Henry II (973-1024), Holy Roman Emperor, also known as Saint Henry the Exuberant. He essentially incorporated Bohemia into…
-
Originally published on X on 22 December 2023. Mills operating here by the Vltava got their name from a former owner, Jan Šítka, who died in 1451. In 1495, a wooden water tower was built, but would be destroyed by a fire six years later. A replacement would also be burned down in 1588, after…
-
Originally published on Twitter on 26 October 2022. U Vodárny was built in 1885. It was known as Gebauerova from 1940 to 1945, after Jan Gebauer (1838-1907), one of the most important Czech linguists. He famously exposed the Manuscripts of Dvůr Králové and Zelená Hora (which I really hope I get to write about one…
What's in a Prague street name 