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: Writers
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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…
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Originally published on X on 5 January 2024. Václav Havel was born in 1936 in Prague. His family was well-off and well-known: his grandfather Vácslav (1861-1921) had built Lucerna, while his father (also Václav; 1897-1979) had created Barrandov Terraces. Meanwhile, his maternal grandfather, Hugo Vavrečka (1880-1952), had been a renowned war correspondent, and was also…
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Originally published on X on 26 November 2023. František Martin Pelcl was born in Rychnov nad Kněžnou, in Hradec Králové Region, in 1734. In 1755, he started studying theology in Prague, soon switching to law. After escaping to Vienna for a few months in 1757, he returned, but his father died and studying was no…
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Originally published on X on 11 October 2023. We’re very much in ‘your friends and family who only visited Prague once have walked along here’ territory now. Jan Nepomuk Neruda was born on Újezd in Malá Strana in 1834. Four years later, his dad opened up a shop at U Dvou slunců (The Two Suns)…
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Originally published on X on 25 September 2023. The southern, Prague 1 side doesn’t have a street sign. Jan Dlabač was born in Cerhenice, near Kolín, in 1758. In 1771, he became a choirboy at Břevnov Monastery, then becoming head chorister at Strahov Monastery four years later. After studying philosophy, mathematics and physics at Prague…
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Originally published on X on 18 September 2023. Nový Svět was originally a village, developing outside Hradčany in the early 1300s, and, in 1360, being attached to it as ordered by Charles IV. Not surprisingly, many of its residents worked at the Castle. And its attachment to Hradčany is why it became known as a…
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Originally published on X on 7 August 2023. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was born in Velyki Sorochyntsi, now in Poltava Oblast, in 1809, supposedly descended from an ancient Ukrainian Cossack family. His father wrote poetry and plays in both Ukrainian and Russian. In 1820, he joined a school in Nizhyn (now in Chernihiv Oblast) and started…
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Originally published on X on 30 April 2023. The street was part of Na Rybníčku (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/01/prague-2-day-169-na-rybnicku/) at first, gaining its own status/name in 1886. Vincenc Hálek was born as Vincenc Hálek in Dolínek, nowadays in Prague East, in 1835. He entered a seminary in Prague, but moved to the Academic Gymnasium (on Štěpánská – https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/01/prague-2-day-167-stepanska/)…
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Originally published on X on 13 April 2023. Jiráskovo náměstí was built in 1905 as a result of modifications to the riverbank. Until 1940, and again from 1945 to 1947, this was Riegrovo náměstí, after František Ladislav Rieger (1818-1903), politician, publicist, and early leader of the Czech nationalist movement. Under the Nazi occupation, it was…
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Originally published on X on 4 April 2023. Palackého náměstí was created in 1896 as a result of renovation of the nearby embankment. From 1942 to 1945, this was Rudolfovo náměstí, after Rudolph II (1552-1612), the Habsburg who certainly made Prague a more fascinating cultural centre than ever, but whose actions also indirectly led to…
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Originally published on X on 22 March 2023, when I also forgot to take/add a photo of the street sign. Maybe I’ll go out and take one now. Tyršova was built in 1893. Fridericus Emanuel Tirsch was born into a German-speaking in Děčín in 1832. By the age of six, he had lost both parents…
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Originally published on X on 28 February 2023. Boženy Němcové was built in 1896. The most common story is that Božena Němcová was born as Barbara Nowotny in Vienna in 1820, to an unmarried mother called Theresia Nowotná. When Barbara was a few months old, Theresia married an Austrian coachman, Johann Pankl, in Malá Skalice.…
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Originally published on X on 19 January 2023. Fričova was built in 1896. Josef Václav Frič was born in 1829 in Prague. His father was Josef František Frič, a patriotic poet and professor at Charles University. In 1848, he became head of a radical student association, Slávie, and encouraged students to take to the barricades…
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Originally published on Twitter on 7 January 2023. Máchova was built before 1884. Ignác Mácha* was born on Újezd, on Malá Strana, in 1810. In 1830, he started to study at Charles-Ferdinand University, taking philosophy and law. *He would later change Ignác to Hynek, and, taken with Czech patriotism, also added the doesn’t-get-much-more-Czech Karel. During…
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Originally published on Twitter on 4 January 2023. Wenzigova was built in 1893. Josef Wenzig was born in Prague in 1807. After working as a private tutor, he became a professor at the Prague German School, staying there from 1833 to 1849, when he set up the První česká reálka (First Czech Secondary School) on…
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Originally published on Twitter on 29 December 2022. Tylovo námestí, colloquially known as Tylák, was built around 1875. The square was built on what was then the highway to Linz-slash-Nusle, i.e. present-day Bělehradská: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/03/02/prague-2-day-40-belehradska/ When the square was founded, it was called Tržiště – the Marketplace – or Tržní náměstí – Market Square, for obvious…
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Originally published on Twitter on 9 December 2022. Rubešova was built before 1884, and the history of the road is slightly complicated. Part of the street, while created around the same time, was originally called Resslova, after Josef Ressel, who was briefly mentioned here as he was a native of Chrudim: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/06/24/prague-3-day-177-chrudimska/ While, in 1895,…
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Originally published on Twitter on 30 November 2022. Sady Bratří Čapků was created (sort of) in 2016. This was part of a larger park, opened in 1903, and, originally called Městský sad (City Garden) until 1928. In 1928, it became Bezručovy sady, after Petr Bezruč, the pseudonym of Vladimír Vašek (1867-1958), a poet most known…
What's in a Prague street name 