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: Writers
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Antala Staška was built in 1935. Until 1952, it was called U krčské vodárny II, which we’ll get onto in an imminent-ish post. Antonín Zeman was born in Stanový, a village near Jablonec, in 1843, as the eldest of ten children. He went to school in Jičín (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/02/26/prague-3-day-158-jicinska/) and Kraków. He then studied law in…
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Halasova was built in 1962. František Halas was born in Brno-Husovice in 1901. His parents were textile workers; his father had been imprisoned for his communist beliefs, and his mother died in 1908. These experiences would greatly influence his career as a poet. When WW1 started, Halas’s father was called up to the front, where…
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Tilschové was built in 1962. Anna Maria Tilschová was born in Prague in 1873. Her father was a doctor of law; her mother was the daughter of Ferdinand Urbánek (1812-87), a sugar entrepreneur and organiser of cultural life in Bohemia and Moravia. In 1895, Anna Maria married her cousin, Emanuel Tilsch, also a lawyer; they…
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Poláčkova was built in 1962. Karel Poláček was born in Rychnov nad Kněžnou in 1892; his father was a Jewish merchant. He also went to school there, but was expelled from grammar school for behaving badly and getting poor grades. Eventually, he ended up finishing his schooling on Truhlářská (AKA one of the streets that…
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Olbrachtova was built in 1962. Welcome to the Krč era! Karel Zeman (bear with me) was born in Semily, near Liberec, in 1882. His father, Antonín, was a lawyer who also wrote novels under the name of Antal Stašek (this will be relevant in a future post). Even while studying at the gymasium in Dvůr…
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Durychova was built in 1976. Until 1995, the street was called Dolejšího, after Vojtěch Dolejší (1903-1972), a Communist journalist who worked for Rudé právo, among other publications, and was chairman of the Czechoslovak Union of Journalists from 1957 to 1963. Jaroslav Durych was born in Hradec Králové (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/06/24/prague-3-day-176-hradecka/). He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine…
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Věkova was built in 1933. After a brief detour, we’re back in ‘characters from novels by Alois Jirásek’ territory. František Ladislav Věk is a Czech patriot in the novel titled, well, F. L. Věk, and described (to an extent) on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/12/02/prague-4-day-247-vrbova/. He is a student – and, later in the novel, a merchant from Dobruška,…
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Skaláků was built in 1975. The Alois Jirásek (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/01/prague-2-day-154-jiraskovo-namesti/) series continues. Skaláci (1876) is Jirásek’s novel about the Peasant’s Uprising which took place 101 years earlier. I won’t go into huge detail on that (spoiler: the peasants were still peasants after it), as it’s sure to come up in other posts. For the title of the…
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Machovcova was built in 1935. Until 1952, the street was called Pod myslivnou II, after a myslivna (gamekeeper’s lodge). As with yesterday, we’re spending some time in Jiráskova čtvrť, and so this is another street named after a character from a novel by Alois Jirásek (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/01/prague-2-day-154-jiraskovo-namesti/). This time, the novel is called Temno (Darkness), and…
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Vrbova was built in 1935. Originally, it was two streets – one called Pod myslivnou (Under the gamekeeper’s lodge), and one called Ve studeném (a name we’ll get on to before we leave Braník). They were joined and renamed in 1973. The villa district covering parts of Braník and Hodkovičky (which is up next in this…
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Pujmanové was built in 1962. Marie Hennerová was born in Prague’s New Town in 1893. Her father, Kamil Henner, was a professor at the Law Faculty of Charles University, while her brother, Kamil, later became a renowned neurologist. Moving to České Budějovice in 1912, she married Vlastislav Zátka, a lawyer; the marriage was short-lived, and…
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Lomnického was built in 1900. Šimon Lomnický was born into a poor family in Lomnice nad Lužnicí in 1552, but, thanks to Vilém z Rožmberka, a noble and one-time treasurer of Bohemia, he was able to have an education. He wrote a series of books about the seven deadly sins and their moral impact, including…
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Originally published on X on 31 May 2024. For this one, we’ve got to start with a writer, Jaroslav Fogler, who was born on Benátská (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/28/prague-2-day-127-benatska/) in 1907, although the family moved out of Prague shortly afterwards. After his father’s death in 1914, he moved back to Prague with his mother, living on Korunní (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/12/23/prague-3-day-187-korunni/).…
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Originally published on X on 10 May 2024. Alžběta Dorota Pechová was born in Prague’s Old Town in 1847, the seventh of her father’s eight children (he was married twice). Her father believed that his family was from Krásná Hora, near Příbram – apparently, this wasn’t actually true, but it did result in the pseudonym…
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Originally published on X on 8 May 2024. Svatopluk Čech was born in Ostředek, near Benešov, in 1846; his father, František, was a patriot who worked as a journalist in 1848/9, when the Austrian Empire’s first elected parliament operated from Kroměříž. After finishing the Piarist grammar school in Prague (see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/22/prague-1-day-137-na-prikope/), Čech started to study…
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Originally published on X on 20 April 2024. Franz Kafka was born in a house on the present-day square in 1883. It was called U Věže (At The Tower), and was destroyed as part the ‘clean-up’ operation in the Old Town in 1897. His father, Hermann, was originally from Osek, a South Bohemian village with…
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Originally published on X on 9 April 2024. Charles/Karel/Karl was born in 1316, as the son of John of Bohemia and his wife Elizabeth. Because these family trees aren’t confusing enough, his birth name was actually Václav, but he chose the name Charles at his confirmation. In 1323, his father sent him to France, where…
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Originally published on X on 24 February 2024. The southern part of the street was originally called Svatoštěpánská, later being known (from 1780) as Štěpánské náměstí, both after a nearby church which is no longer there. The northern part, meanwhile, was known as Za svatým křížem menším – a reference to the rotunda mentioned on:…
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Originally published on X on 14 January 2024. Again, I get to direct you to one I wrote earlier: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/31/prague-2-day-145-palackeho-namesti/. Palacký spent his final years – and, in 1876, died – at number 7. The street was first mentioned in 1383, under the name of Tandléřská – a tandléř, derived from southern German, being a…
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Originally published on X on 11 January 2024. Magdalena Artmann was born at the castle in Všeradice, near Beroun, in 1785. After the premature deaths of her father and siblings, she moved to Plzeň with her mother. Until she was 18, Magdalena only spoke German, but then she fell in love with a law graduate…
What's in a Prague street name 