What's in a Prague street name

Every street in Prague, one by one.

Water

  • Prague 4, day 242: Nad strouhou

    Nad strouhou was named in 1926. A ‘strouha’ is an artificial or natural flow of water. It can be used to drain water, or to power a mill. I’m going to go with ‘gully’ as a reasonable English translation. I’m also going to assume it comes from the same Old Slavic source as Struga in Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 217: Na Mlejnku

    Na Mlejnku was named in 1938. In 1625, the Dominican Order of St Giles (see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/06/prague-1-day-171-jilska/ for a bit more about him and them) came to Braník and acquired the local fortified manor. At some point, they had a water mill – a vodni mlýn – built. It lasted a good while, being purchased by Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 114: Na Topolce

    Na Topolce was built in 1925. Once upon a time, there was a vineyard around here. It was called Topolka. According to legend, water from the spring here was used to serve Vyšehrad (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/26/prague-2-day-118-vysehradska/). At some point, the local well also became known as Topolka; there are rumours that Libuše used drink from it (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/23/prague-2-day-93-libusina/), Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 54: Pod lázní

    Pod lázní was built in 1925. This street is under a ‘lázeň’, which we can translate as ‘bath’. To find out where that is (sorry, was), we need to head back to Jezerka (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/03/19/prague-4-day-51-na-jezerce/) Once upon a time, a clean spring of water used to flow from Jezerka to Vyšehrad (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/26/prague-2-day-118-vysehradska/). As far back as Continue reading

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  • Prague 4, day 47: Pod pramenem

    Pod pramenem was built in 1932. It translates as ‘under the spring’, and the spring in question is called Jezerka, as is the park that you can see in the map above. I would go into more detail, but it’s really more of a day 51 kind of story. Continue reading

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  • Prague 2, day 170: V Tůních

    Originally published on X on 29 April 2023. V Tůních was built around the end of the 17th century. Until 1870, it was known by a similar name, Tůnní. A tůň, or tůně, is a ‘circular or oval-shaped freshwater ecosystem located in the floodplains of rivers or streams’. So I guess we’re dealing with a pond, Continue reading

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