Every street in Prague, one by one.
V Horkách was built in 1906.
A ‘hora’ is a mountain; a ‘horka’ is the diminutive form thereof.
And the surrounding area was known as ‘Horky’ – the small mountains – at least as far back as 1841.
I’m not finding it massively ‘mountainous’ here, but I guess everything’s relative.
It’s also the name of at least three towns in Czechia, as well as at least four parts of towns, and one nature reserve.
Kloboučnická was nameless until 1920.
Our starting point is ‘klobouk’, which means ‘hat’. A diminutive form of this is ‘klobouček’, which means ‘cap’ (i.e. a little hat).
Meanwhile, a ‘kloboučnictví’ would either be a place where hats are made, or where they’re sold. Apparently, this trade is called ‘millinery’, which may be something everybody else on the planet is aware of, but I swear I’d never seen that word until three minutes ago.
Anyway, in 1909, a hat factory stared operating here. Run by Stanislav Bartoš (1866-1935), it mainly produced women’s hats, but also made straw hats for men, and gave the street its name.
An extra building with a Cubist façade, serving as an space to exhibit the hats, was added to the factory in 1914.
The factory expanded in the 1920s; when nationalisation kicked in after WW2, the factory was used by Tonak, a firm which still exists (https://www.tonak.cz/kontakt/).
There are some great pictures of the insides of the factory on https://www.historicka-praha.cz/tovarna-klobouky-bartos/.
The main entrance to the factory – on V Horkách – is long gone, having been replaced by a residential building. However, the abovementioned exhibition hall still exists at Kloboučnická 13.
Bartoškova was built in 1910.
Theodor Bartošek was born in Ždánice, in South Moravia, in 1877; his father was a judge.
After finishing school in Brno in 1897, he moved to Prague to study law and philosophy, where one of the professors who had the greatest impact on him was one Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/01/prague-2-day-156-masarykovo-nabrezi/).
During his studies, he joined the Social Democratic Party, co-founded a student union, and edited a student magazine.
Despite having spent much of his early life thinking he would become a priest, Bartošek had, by this time, become an atheist; when the Volná myšlenka / Free Thought organisation was set up in the Czech Lands in 1904, he was one of its figureheads, travelling to international freethinker conferences, not only in Europe, but also in North America.
During World War I, the organisation was banned, and, in 1916, Bartošek was imprisoned, and then interned in a camp in Austria. When the camp closed down in 1917, he was called up for military service.
Once the war was over – and Czechoslovakia was a reality – he moved back to Prague and joined the Czechoslovak Socialist Party (ČSSD), winning a seat in the National Assembly in the 1920 elections.
However, Bartošek’s freethinking attitude clashed with that of the party; in 1923, he, and others, opposed the Defense of the Republic Act. As a result, he was expelled from the party – and stripped of his parliamentary seat. He joined the Socialist Union, a new political grouping.
However, this union was short lived – one of its two groupings decided to join the ČSSD in 1924. The second grouping – the one Bartošek was in – formed a new party, the Independent Socialist Workers’ Party, but ‘independent’ turned out to be a misnomer – this new party was merged with the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1925.
Bartošek represented the Communists on Prague City Council and took part in cultural delegations to the Soviet Union; however, his membership of the party meant he was dismissed from the Freethinkers.
Arrested more than once during World War II, but acquitted at trial, Bartošek took part in the Prague Uprising in May 1945 (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/02/05/prague-4-day-25-5-kvetna-5-may/).
After the war, he became vice-president of the Czech Bar Association (the legal type, not the drinking type), worked for the Czech Communist Party’s Central Committee, and, as a supporter of the Communist coup in February 1948, then worked for the Ministry of Justice.
In late 1953, Bartošek was elected to the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, but, afflicted by heart disease, died in Prague less than a year later.
U Křížku was built in 1930.
A ‘křížek’ is a small cross (a regular-sized cross is a ‘kříž’), and this was once the name of… something round here, probably involving the Holy Cross.
There’s a hill originally named after the Holy Cross, and colloquially also known as Křížek, in Prague 3, and, if you live round there, you’ll know it: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/26/prague-3-day-91-pod-parukarkou/.
Družstevní was built in 1920.
The street name is an adjective which derives from ‘družstvo’, meaning ‘association’, ‘collective’ or ‘co-op’.
For many, the word has communist connotations – a ‘zemědělské družstvo’ is what we would call a cooperative farm, although it also translates as ‘agricultural cooperative’, and, as Dairy Farmers of America and similar organisations will tell you, they don’t need to have a communist country around them to exist.
However, we’re not dealing with agriculture here – the ‘družstvo’ in question is a ‘stavební družstvo’, which we’d translate as ‘construction cooperative’ – or ‘building society’.
And, back in 1920, when Nusle hadn’t yet become part of Greater Prague, but, like all the neighbouring districts, was expanding significantly as Prague itself became a capital city, a building society was responsible for building the dwellings in this street. Hence the name.
U Pernštejnských was built in 1938, but was nameless until 1947.
The Pernštejns were a noble family originating in south-west Moravia. They reached the peak of their power in the 1500s, becoming one of the three richest families in the Czech Lands.
However, by the mid-1600s, they were no more, as the last of the female line, Polyxena (excellent name) married into the Lobkowicz family.
There’s more information about the family, their eponymous castle, and their liking for owning properties – such as near Wenceslas Square – on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/28/prague-1-day-149-na-perstyne/.
As for their link this street, it seems that they owned stuff round here too.
Wonder if they’d prefer the spelling on the street signs, or on building number two.
Mojmírova was built in 1892.
Slavs started arriving on the territory of present-day Czechia in the 5th century; this was a gradual process, happening in several waves.
We know that a king called Sámo formed the first West Slavic state – Samo’s Empire, in the 600s (from 623 or 631 to 658). It was most likely centered on Moravia (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/02/14/prague-2-day-27-moravska/) and the Nitra region in present-day Slovakia (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/12/23/prague-3-day-185-nitranska/).
Historical sources are pretty silent on what happened in the 150+ years after the Empire fell, although it seems that settlements developed and tribes united with each other.
Meanwhile, from the west, Charlemagne was extending the borders of his Frankish Empire; this included a mission to Bohemia around 805, aiming to undermine local tribes.
The Principality of Moravia, meanwhile, was first mentioned in writing in 822; then, in 833, we have our first mention of Mojmír. It’s believed that he was responsible for uniting tribes from Moravia, western Slovakia and the surrounding areas. Some historians say he was a descendant of Sámo; others say he was of Persian origin.
In 833, Mojmír attacked the Principality of Nitra. This principality was either separate from Moravia at the time, or, under its duke, Pribina, was already part of Moravia but trying to break free.
In any case Mojmír was successful, and, from this point on, the principalities were definitively united, and known as Great Moravia. This is considered to be the first major Slavic state (sorry, Sámo).
Meanwhile, Pribina fled, seeking Frankish protection; however, he was a pagan, and Mojmír was on good terms with his western neighbours, so they gave Pribina a new territory to rule over – in Pannonia – but didn’t intervene against Great Moravia.
It seems that Mojmír accepted Christianity, and that it was during his reign that Moravia got its first churches.
In 846, Louis the German, grandson of Charlemagne, and first King of East Francia – a proto-Germany – invaded Great Moravia. Apparently, Mojmír died during this invasion; he was succeeded by his nephew, Rostislav (who we discussed yesterday: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/02/15/prague-4-day-35-rostislavova/).
Great Moravia itself would survive until about 907, reaching its greatest extent under Rostislav.
Rostislavova was built in 1892.
Rostislav was the nephew of Mojmír I, the first known ruler of the Moravian Slavs. More on him in a couple of days.
It’s possible that, as a child, he was held as a vassal, upon Uncle Mojmír’s request, by Louis the German, King of East Francia.
Louis invaded Moravia in 846, dethroned Mojmír, and replaced him with Rostislav, who he expected would be an ally.
However, from the 850s, Rostislav started befriending Louis’ opponents and granting them asylum. Louis reacted in 855 by invading Great Moravia, but Rostislav’s men counterattacked successfully.
In 858, Rostislav became an ally of Carloman, governor of Carantania (nowadays in Austria and Slovenia) – and son of Louis. This alliance helped Rostislav to gain territory in Hungary.
In 861, the two of them would attack Louis’ forces. Rostislav attacked the Principality of Blatno, deposed its ruler, Pribina, and installed Pribina’s son, Kocel, who was to be Rostislav’s protégé.
Louis, meanwhile, formed an alliance with the Bulgarians, and eventually got his wayward son to stop rebelling against him.
In the 860s, Rostislav wrote to Pope Nicholas I, asking for a ‘teacher’ who would educate priests and help spread Christianity in Moravia, but didn’t get a reply, probably because the Pope didn’t want to annoy Louis.
Rostislav then tried his luck with the Byzantine Emperor, Michael III. This time, he was more successful – in 863, Michael sent two of the greatest Byzantine scholars, Cyril and Methodius.
In 864, Louis invaded Great Moravia. This time, Rostislav had to accept domination and the reintroduction of Latin priests who he had had thrown out about fifteen years earlier.
However, Cyril and Methodius stayed. In 869 – the year of another invasion by Louis – the Pope recognised Methodius as the local bishop.
Rostislav then entrusted the Principality of Nitra (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/12/23/prague-3-day-185-nitranska/) to his nephew, Svatopluk (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/21/prague-2-day-87-svatoplukova/).
Rostislav made plans for Svatopluk to be killed, but the latter foiled his plan, had him captured and delivered him to Louis.
Rostislav was sentenced to death, but Louis ‘generously’ commuted his sentence to blinding and imprisonment. He died in captivity, some time after 870.
In 1994, he was canonised by the Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church.
V podluží was built in 1925.
Yesterday, we discussed how a ‘luh’ is a meadow, and that the area around here once had that name too (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/02/13/prague-4-day-33-v-luhu/).
We’re not straying at all far from that story today, because ‘podluží’ would translate as ‘the area under the meadow’.
Shove ‘Podluží’ into Wikipedia, and you’ll find out that it’s also the name of an ‘ethnographic region’ in the southern tip of Moravia.
If you’ve ever taken a train to Austria, Slovakia or Hungary, you’ve almost certainly been through its main town, Břeclav.
The region also saw a major tornado in June 2021 – the strongest ever in this country, and the deadliest tornado in Europe since 2002: https://www.theguardian.com/weather/2021/jun/25/czech-republic-tornado-deaths-villages-damage-south-moravia-hodonin-hrusky.
V luhu was built in 1925.
A ‘luh’ is a riparian forest, i.e. a forest that’s next to a body of water. It can also be translated as ‘meadow’, and it seems that that’s what the area round here was once known as.
I would apologise for the days on which these posts are short, but we all know that there’s always a long one round the corner (not tomorrow, though).
Pod vilami was built in 1925.
The street name translates as ‘below the villas’, and, well, that’s pretty self-explanatory.
The corner of Pod vilami and Vladimírova features St Wenceslas Church (Kostel svatého Václava), built in 1898, the year in which Nusle, not yet part of Prague, was elevated to the status of royal town.
Vladimírova was built in 1898.
Vladimir (or Volodymyr) was born in 958, the illegitimate son of Sviatoslav (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/02/10/prague-4-day-30-svatoslavova/) and his servant, Malusha.
In 970, Sviatoslav made his legitimate son, Yaropolk (pictured), ruler of Kyiv; Vladimir was put in charge of Novgorod.
Sviatoslav was murdered two years later, and war broke out between Yaropolk and the third brother, Oleg (who Vladimir supported).
Vladimir took Polotsk by force – largely because its prince had refused to allow him to marry his daughter, Rogneda, and so Vladimir decided that he would have to take her by force.
He also captured Smolensk, and, in 978, he killed Yaropolk and became Prince (knyaz) of Kyiv.
During his reign, Vladimir extended his territories beyond what his father had ruled; he also maintained his father’s pagan beliefs, at least at first.
Stories of Vladimir’s conversion to Christianity vary (don’t they always?). One has it that, in 988, Vladimir besieged Chersonesus (located where Sevastopol is now), and requested the hand of Anna, daughter of the Byzantine Emperor, Basil II. In order to get her as his wife, he agreed to be baptised.
Returning to Kyiv, Vladimir destroyed pagan monuments and had churches built. He also founded the city of Belgorod in 991.
Despite his taste for war and conquering, Vladimir lived in relative peace with his neighbours for the last years of his life. He died, probably of natural causes, in 1015.
St Volodymyr’s Cathedral, in Kyiv, is dedicated to him (pictures taken in 2013. I love that city).
Слава Україні.
I can’t say with certainty when Svatoslavova was built, but it’s had its name since 1900.
There are Svatoslavs that the street could be named after. I’ll get the more Czech – but less interesting – one out of the way, and then I’ll move on to option two.
Option 1
Svatoslav was an alleged Bohemian duke who, according to the Fulda Annals (an East Frankish chronicle covering a period from about 840 to 900), took part in a battle against the Franks on the Vltava in 872, along with five or six other dukes (including Bořivoj: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/01/14/prague-3-day-134-borivojova/).
The Bohemians lost; it’s not known if Svatoslav survived, but he’s not mentioned in any other texts.
Option 2
Sviatoslav was born around 943, the son of Igor, Prince of Kyiv since 922, and his wife, Olga.
Igor was killed in 945 by the Drevlians, an East Slavic tribe, after which Olga ruled as regent until Sviatoslav was old enough to do so himself (we believe he ruled from 963).
However, before Igor died, he formed a close military alliance with the Byzantine Empire; this will be relevant later on.
Olga converted to Orthodox Christianity in 957 (and is venerated as a saint nowadays), but Sviatoslav would remain a pagan for his entire life. For example, in a treaty signed with the Emperor of Byzantium in 971, he swore by two gods, one of whom was Perun – who you can learn a bit about on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/12/23/prague-3-day-183-perunova/.
Once Sviatoslav was able to rule in his own right, he really got down to business. In 964-5, he and his Rus troops defeated a neighbouring tribe, the Vyatichi, and also put an end to the Khazar Khaganate, one of the strongest states in the region.
In 965, he destroyed the Khazar city of Sarkel, establishing a Rus’ settlement called Belaya Vyezha (White Tower) in its place. He also destroyed the Khazar capital, Atil.
Around 967, the Byzantine Emperor, Nikephoros II Phokas, asked Sviatoslav for help in a war against Bulgaria; Sviatoslav provided 60,000 men. He was victorious, and ended up occupying northern Bulgaria.
Meanwhile, the Byzantines bribed the Pechenegs, a nomadic Turkic people, into besieging Kyiv. Sviatoslav therefore returned, but refused to give up his Bulgarian gains to the Byzantines.
Sviatoslav decided to move his capital to Pereyaslavets (exact location unknown, but located in present-day Bulgaria or Romania). In 969, he left Rus’, which he had divided between his three sons.
He devastated Thrace, captured Philippopolis (current-day Plovdiv), and laid siege to Adrianople (current-day Edirne) in 970. Byzantium – now ruled by John Tzimiskes – launched a counter-offensive, defeating Sviatoslav’s forces at the Battle of Arcadiopolis.
John proclaimed himself the liberator of Bulgaria; Sviatoslav retreated to Silistra (modern-day Silistra, Bulgaria), where the Byzantines besieged him and his men for sixty-five days until he agreed to give up on the Balkans.
The Byzantines were scared that Sviatoslav wouldn’t keep his word, so John asked Kurya, the Pecheneg khan, to kill him before he got back to Kyiv. This happened near Khortytsia, the largest island on the Dnieper River, in 972.
After Sviatoslav’s death, tensions broke out between his three sons; ultimately, two would be killed, and the third, Vladimir I Sviatoslavich, or Volodymyr the Great, would rule Kyiv from 978 to 1015, and would convert to Christianity in 988.
Initially, I thought that the street was much more likely to have been named after option 1. Then I started writing tomorrow’s post, and realised I was wrong.
Náměstí Generála Kutlvašra (General Kutlvašr Square) was built in 1911.
Karel Kutlvašr was born in Michalovice, near Havlíčkův Brod, in 1896. Graduating from business school in 1911, he first worked in Humpolec, then in Kyiv.
However, when World War One started, he joined the Czech Company, a volunteer unit consisting of Czechs living in the Russian Empire.
He was injured in the Battle of Zborov (mentioned on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/12/prague-1-day-90-most-legii-legion-bridge/), and later became a battalion commander in the First Czechoslovak Rifle Regiment.
In 1918, he participated in the capture of Kazan; in 1919, he became the Regiment’s commander. Then, in 1920, he finally returned to Czechoslovakia.
In the 1920s, he served as a commander in České Budějovice, then in Chomutov, eventually becoming one of the country’s youngest generals.
He then served in Hradec Králové. By the time World War Two came, he was in charge of Border Region 35 in Vamberk (also in the Hradec Králové region).
During World War II, he was a member of Obrana národa (Defence of the Nation), a resistance organisation fighting against the Nazi occupation.
In April 1945 – during the planning phase for the Prague Uprising – he was named commander of the Bartoš Command, which was supposed to oversee the fighting in central Prague.
It was Kutlvašr who, on 5 May, ordered that the insurgents occupy the Radio Prague building.
Three days later, he was one of those who negotiated the Nazi surrender in Prague in exchange for the free passage of German soldiers through the city before they were captured by Allied forces.
Kutlvašr was military commander of Prague until 28 May, then went to Brno to serve the same role. However, he was dismissed by the Czechoslovak government just two days later, as requested by the Soviet Ambassador.
This was because of his role in the negotiations with the Nazis. Barely three weeks after commanding the Prague Uprising, Kutlvašr seemed to be out of a job.
President Beneš intervened, and Kutlvašr served again from 1946 to 1948. However, when the Communists took power as a result of their coup in February 1948, he was put on leave again.
In December, he was arrested for his alleged membership in an alleged resistance group, ‘Pravda vítěží” (Truth will prevail). He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1949, and was amnestied in 1960, by which point he was in very poor health.
Kutlvašr subsequently lived on Rybalkova (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/07/07/prague-2-day-63-rybalkova/), but had to work due to his meagre pension. This included working as a watchman at the Nusle Brewery (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/01/02/prague-4-day-2-vrtbova/).
However, he died during a medical examination in 1961. Charges against him were dropped posthumously in 1968, but he wasn’t fully rehabilitated until 1989. Nine years later, this square was named after him.
Nusle’s town hall – one side of which is on the square, although the picture below is from Táborská – has a bust commemorating Kutlvašr.
The square is also the location of this quite pleasing park, Jiráskovy sady (name explained on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/01/prague-2-day-154-jiraskovo-namesti/).
It was originally meant to have a church in the centre, but that plan was cancelled in 1948.
Until 1948 (except during the Nazi occupation), the square was called Palackého náměstí, despite there being another square called this to the north-west. There still is: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/31/prague-2-day-145-palackeho-namesti/.
Then, in 1948, it was renamed náměstí Československých legionářů (Square of the Czech Legionnaires – again, you may want to click on the Prague 1, day 90 link I posted above).
The Legionnaires were clearly not quite communist enough, because in 1962, the square was renamed again, this time to náměstí Pařížské komuny (Square of the Paris Commune). For those not so versed in non-local history (full disclosure: this includes me): the Paris Commune was a revolutionary government that seized power in March 1871, but only ever controlled parts of the city, and only until the end of May of that year.
If we’re talking about France, Kutlvašr’s titles include both the Legion of Honour and the Croix de Guerre.
Pod sokolovnou was built in 1933. Its name translates as ‘under the Sokol’, which had been opened eight years earlier.
For the story of the Sokols, see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/26/prague-2-day-114-sokolska/.
In communist times, the powers-that-be decided that the Sokols should be replaced with the joyful-and-spontaneous-as-they-sound Czechoslovak Union of Physical Education.
From 1948 until the end of the communist regime (when the Sokols were revived), the former Nusle branch was used by Slovan Orbis Praha, a basketball club.
SOP did well in their time, though: the men’s team won the Czechoslovak championship twice, whereas the ladies won nine times between the 1953-4 and 1964-5 seasons, i.e. 75% of the seasons that took place in that timeframe.
They (the women’s team) also reached the final of the European Cup (nowadays EuroLeague Women) on three occasions.
Nice little history on the Nusle Sokol’s website (in Czech): https://tjsokolnusle.cz/o-nas/historie/.
Na Květnici was built in 1925.
‘Květnice’ is a now-obsolete word used to denote a flower garden. There’s a settlement in Prague East called this, complete with a castle with the same name.
It also seems that there was a local settlement with the name here in Nusle.
Na Květnici is the present-day location for the Nusle Sokol (see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/26/prague-2-day-114-sokolska/). It initially moved there in 1925, but more on that tomorrow.
Originally, this was part of the road from Prague to České Budějovice and then on to Linz, and was therefore known as Linecká, Budějovická, or, reflecting its direct surroundings, Nuselská.
From 1900 to 1940, and again from 1945 to 1947, it was named Palackého – see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/31/prague-2-day-145-palackeho-namesti/ to learn about Mr Palacký.
Tábor, population 34,000, is the second-largest town in South Bohemia.
There’s also a Mount Tabor in North Galilee; three out of the four Gospels state that this is where Jesus was transfigured and began to shine with rays of light (interpretation by Raphael).
Later on, in the Book of Judges, a battle took place at Mount Tabor between the Israelites and the Canaanites after a prophetess, Deborah, had summoned Barak, a military commander, to take ten thousand soldiers there.
Back in South Bohemia, archaeologists have proved that there was a settlement here in the 13th century, even though this isn’t backed up by contemporaneous written sources.
In the early 1270s, King Přemysl Otakar II (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/01/06/prague-4-day-6-otakarova/) made plans to create a new centre of royal power round here, but he died in 1278 and this never materialised.
Moving forward to the early 1400s, the Bohemian Reformation was underway. In the briefest terms, the Hussites – named after Jan Hus – wanted to reverse the moral decay of the Catholic Church and make it return to the Christian principles of poverty and modesty.
Hus was executed for heresy at the Council of Constance in 1415; wars between Hussites and Catholics would then take place on a regular basis from 1420 to 1434.
In the spring of 1420, many Hussites – already fans of mountain pilgrimages – decided to create a new ‘community of the righteous’, governed only by God’s law.
New arrivals were instructed to leave their belongings in the main square; these would then be distributed among the population, who were known as Taborites. However, this communism-before-communism was abandoned within a few months.
The town was led by four elected governors, and, from day one, had its own army, led by, amongst others, a certain Jan Žižka, who would give his name to an entire district of Prague (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/02/26/prague-3-day-150-zizkovo-namesti/).
The army looted property from nearby places to gain income, burned down churches and monasteries, and destroyed anything they believed to represent the evils of Catholicism.
In 1437, after years of war – which largely taught the Catholics that the Hussites couldn’t be defeated on the battlefield – Sigismund of Luxembourg, who had been crowned King of Bohemia in 1419 but whom the Hussites refused to recognise, recognised Tábor as a Hussite town.
However, Sigismund died in the same year, and, in early 1438, the Taborites rejected his successor, Albert II of Germany, who sent his troops to besiege the city. They lost.
Fourteen years later, the city would finally accept a King of Bohemia, specifically Jiří z Poděbrad; 1452 is considered the end of Tábor’s era as a place of Hussite rebellion.
Tábor would later be hit by bad luck – such as huge fires in 1532 and 1599 – and by punishment from Catholic overlords – and after it rose in rebellion against Ferdinand I, he proceeded to deprive it of all the land it owned.
However, once rebellious, always rebellious, and there was a gap of almost a year between the Habsburg victory over the Hussites at Bílá Hora (December 1620) and the moment Tábor surrendered (November 1621). Again, there were punishments, and inhabitants were forced to convert to Catholicism.
In the 17th century, Tábor became a major location for the crafts industry; it was elevated to a ‘regional city’ by Maria Theresa in 1750.
Here are two early photos of the city.
In 1862, the first Realgymnasium (secondary school) in Bohemia in which the main language of instruction was Czech was opened in Tábor.
It was also in Tábor that Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, entering a newly independent Czechoslovakia – as its president – stopped on his way to Prague. He made a speech stating that ‘Tábor je náš program’ – ‘Tábor is our programme’.
This was particularly symbolic given that Masaryk was not a Catholic, and Czechoslovakia had finally thrown off the shackles of the Austrian regime which had forced recatholicisation of Bohemia in the 1620s.
Unsurprisingly, Tábor remains a popular tourist attraction. Painting by Oskar Lake.
The road was built in 1931, and, until 1940 (and again from 1945 to 1978), it was named 1. listopadu – 1 November – in honour of the Battle of Vyšehrad in 1420: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/02/01/prague-4-day-21-na-vitezne-plani/.
By May 1945, Bohemia and Moravia had been occupied by Nazi Germany for over six years. However, both Soviet and American soldiers had entered Czech territory in the spring.
On 24 April, Stalin announced that the Soviets would liberate Prague and the surrounding area. There were well-founded fears from, among others, Winston Churchill and Edvard Beneš, that this would subject the Czechs to long-term Soviet influence.
The Americans were more focused on taking military action in Germany and Austria – and were counting on Soviet support in Japan – so, on 1 May, President Truman announced that the US wouldn’t take part in the liberation.
Two days after Stalin’s announcement, the Soviets liberated Brno; six days later, on 2 May, they entered Berlin. Between these two events – on 30 April – Hitler had died and American troops had entered Munich.
The Soviets intended to enter Prague on 7 May; however, the domestic resistance had been planning their uprising for several months, despite a lack of soldiers and weapons.
It may also be useful to mention two earlier events in 1945: former Czechoslovak army officers had set up the Bartoš Command, which was supposed to oversee fighting in Prague, and the Alex Command, which was to direct insurgents in the suburbs.
Meanwhile, the Czech National Council – a union of domestic resistance organisations – had a military commission which was also preparing for an uprising (the Commands were unaware of the Military Commission, and vice versa).
Now, on to the 5th.
At 06:00, a voice on Czech Radio – that of Zdeněk Mančal – announced that ‘Je právě sechs hodin’ – ‘It’s exactly six o’clock’, in a mixture of Czech and German. Broadcasting in Czech had been forbidden for years.
At 08:00, an announcer was stopped from reading the news in German, and the content of the broadcast after that – the language and the music – was decidedly Czech.
That morning, the National Committee of Greater Prague was founded; at 10:30, it announced, via street radio, that the Third Reich was no more, and ordered those who were working for it to stop.
Czechs started taking German flags and signage down, replacing them with Czechoslovak flags and Czech signage. They also began arresting Germans; German soldiers retaliated with shooting.
Meanwhile, on Old Town Square (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/12/prague-1-day-190-staromestske-namesti-old-town-square/), the Alex Command met.
They received a copy of an alleged order from the Third Reich, decreeing that the Wehrmacht should hand Prague over to Czech forces. Fifty minutes later, it was announced that all Czech officers had to report to their garrisons.
The Bartoš Command met on Bartolomějská (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/28/prague-1-day-150-bartolomejska/), later establishing contact with the Czech National Council. The Bartoš and Alex Commands (eventually) agreed to be subordinate to the Council.
Around noon, the Bartoš Command had ordered that the Czech Radio building on (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/02/26/prague-3-day-161-vinohradska/) be secured, but it was guarded by SS patrols who began to search the building.
Half an hour later, Czech radio staff broadcast a call for the police, the army, and all good Czechs to help. Or, in other words, to participate in the Prague Uprising.
Locals, both armed and unarmed, didn’t hesitate to obey the call, and street fighting broke out around the radio building. The Germans in the radio building surrendered around six o’clock.
Fighting took place elsewhere in Prague too, especially at the main train stations and in both of central Prague’s town halls. The rebels managed to gain control of the City Telephone Exchange, Pankrác Prison, and almost all of Prague’s bridges.
By the end of the day, the rebels controlled most of Prague on the eastern bank of the Vltava, although the Germans still controlled much of the western side, including the airport.
While this street is only named after the first day of the uprising – and that’s all that I’m covering here, as other stories will surely come up in future posts – it lasted until 9 May, when Soviet troops entered the newly liberated city.
In those five short days, about 2,000 Czech civilians lost their lives, and you will see plaques dedicated to them all over the city, especially in Vinohrady.
Meanwhile, the failure of the Western states to liberate Prague reinforced what many had already felt when the Munich Agreement was reached in 1938: namely, that Western concern for Czechoslovakia was extremely limited. The Soviets wouldn’t take long to use this to their advantage.
Louny is a town of 18,000 people in the Ústí nad Labem Region, located about 20 km from the town we discussed yesterday, Žatec (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/02/03/prague-4-day-23-zateckych/).
Přemysl Otakar II (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/01/06/prague-4-day-6-otakarova/) had a royal town built here in the 1260s.
The rest of the story is very similar to yesterday’s – there was a rumour in Hussite times that five Bohemian cities would escape destruction when the world ended. Žatec was one; Louny was another.
Louny allied with Žatec (and another of the five towns, Slaný) during the Hussite Wars, and troops from the town were a key part of the forces that defeated the Catholics just metres from here on 1 November 1420 (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/02/01/prague-4-day-21-na-vitezne-plani/).
The most famous person to be born in Louny is probably Karolína Plíšková, who made the final of the Women’s singles at Wimbledon in 2021.
Žateckých was built in 1931.
The street is named after a group of people from Žatec, a town of 20,000 people, located 62 km north-west of Prague. As late as the 1500s, it was one of the largest cities in Bohemia. More on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/20/prague-1-day-207-zatecka/.
In the late 1410s, many Hussites thought that the end of the world was approaching, but also predicted that five Bohemian cities would escape destruction at this point. One of these was Žatec.
The city was a major centre of Hussitism, and important Hussites priests worked there.
It’s therefore no surprise that, when the Battle of Vyšehrad occurred on 1 November 1420, forces from Žatec – žatečtí, or in the genitive form, žateckých – were key in the victorious Hussite forces.
This street – which leads into https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2025/02/01/prague-4-day-21-na-vitezne-plani/ – commemorates their participation.
Less than a year later, the Second Anti-Hussite Crusade would occur, and, in September 1421, Žatec would undergo a month-long siege, but came out victorious.
Modern-day Žateckých – which is really three streets leading into a central square – is the location of the Parish Church of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren in Prague 4 – Nusle (Farní sbor Českobratrské církve evangelické v Praze 4 – Nuslích).
What's in a Prague street name 