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: Walls
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Originally published on X on 9 June 2024. Soběslav I, Duke of Bohemia from 1125 to 1140 (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/24/prague-2-day-96-sobeslavova/), started the process of fortifying Prague (‘hradby’ are fortifications). However, the process of fortifying the Old Town (and Malá Strana) really got going during the rule of Václav I (1230-1235, and, unlike Soběslav, as King), and would…
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Originally published on X on 17 February 2024. Way back in the 1100s, there was a settlement here called Újezd, meaning the same as but not to be confused with https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/11/prague-1-day-81-ujezd/. Between 1178 and 1187, the Church of St Martin was built, and, after that, the name of the settlement was updated to Újezd u Svatého…
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Originally published on X on 23 January 2024. Between 1348 and 1350, Charles IV arranged for the construction of Gothic-style walls all around the (then brand) New Town. Like pretty much every settlement in Bohemia, the New Town had an incredibly rough time of it during the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48). Therefore, new, improved fortifications…
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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…
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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…
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Originally published on X on 9 February 2023. V Pevnosti was named in 1900 but presumably built some time before then. Its name translates as ‘In the fortress’. Czech monarchs lived at Vyšehrad until 1140, when their residence moved back to Prague Castle. It wasn’t until 1348, and the rule of Charles IV, that Vyšehrad…
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Originally published on Twitter on 12 December 2022. Žitná was built between the 15th and 18th centuries, possibly making this one 400 years older than any other street we’ve covered so far. Žitná is the feminine form of the adjective stemming from žito, rye. (I guess I’ve never mentioned that these streets are almost all…
What's in a Prague street name 