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Prague 1, day 238: Týn
Originally published on X on 27 May 2024. When I first drafted my post about Týn / Ungelt (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/12/prague-1-day-189-tynska/), I didn’t realise that the courtyard is also treated as its own street, and therefore has its own street sign. So it was quite nice to pop in and get some proper pictures of Týn, too.… Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 237: Rámová
Originally published on X on 26 May 2024. Two possibilities here. The first one is that the street is named after number 4, U Modrého rámce (The Blue Frame). It’s pictured, and, at least in 2024, not noticeably blue. The second theory is that the street is named after the frames (Czech: ‘rámy’) used by… Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 236: Benediktská
Originally published on X on 24 May 2024. Originally, the street was called Za masnými krámy, on which see yesterday: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/11/03/prague-1-day-235-masna/. However, before the meat shops (probably – I can’t say for certain when those appeared), there was also the Church of St Benedict, built at some point between 1150 and 1175. The Teutonic Knights… Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 235: Masná
Originally published on X on 23 May 2024. In the early 1300s (we’ll call this the ‘John of Bohemia era’), there were already meat shops around here. The local butchers formed their own guild in 1359, and regarded St Jacob’s as their place of worship (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/11/prague-1-day-185-jakubska/). The street (which was smaller at the time) therefore… Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 234: V Kolkovně
Originally published on X on 22 May 2024. ‘Kolkovné’ is stamp tax or stamp duty; I would explain in detail what that is, but it’s been fifteen years since my tax exams, and stamp duty was one of the chapters that I don’t think I fully understood at the time. We believe stamp duty originated… Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 233: Dlouhá
Originally published on X on 21 May 2024. Dlouhá is also popularly known as Dlouhá třída, and there’s still at least one street sign with that variant. ‘Dlouhá’ means long, and the map in the previous post confirms that this name is appropriate. The street is first mentioned in writing in 1310. It understandably became… Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 232: Salvátorská
Originally published on X on 20 May 2024. In 1610, a Protestant nobleman, Jáchym Ondřej Šlik, bought a plot of land for the construction of a German Evangelical church; the foundation stone was laid a year later, and the church (Kostel svatého Salvátora / St Salvator’s Church) was consecrated in 1614. Salvátor is a Czech… Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 231: Kostečná
Originally published on X on 17 May 2024. You know what a kostka is. Six sides. Numbers from 1 to 6 totalling 21. An item which may indirectly lead you to realise which of your friends gets seriously competitive about Monopoly. Reminds you of that shopping place near the airport. Or, if you’re feeling like… Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 230: Vězeňská
Originally published on X on 16 May 2024. A ‘vězení’ or a ‘věznice’ is a prison, and apparently there was once one here. The name can be traced back to the 18th century, but the prison… sorry, I’m drawing a blank. Across the country, there are ‘vazební věznice’ (remand prisons, i.e. prisons in which people… Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 229: U Staré školy (The Old School)
Originally published on X on 15 May 2024. The oldest Jewish settlements in Prague were probably on Malá Strana and near Vyšehrad. The Vyšehrad one disappeared around the end of the 11th century. The one in Malá Strana, meanwhile, was burned down in 1142, when Conrad III of Germany laid siege to Prague Castle. The… Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 228: Dušní
Originally published on X on 14 May 2024. A relatively quick one today, as I can just point you towards https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/31/prague-1-day-227-u-svateho-ducha/ (with an update: I’ve seen a website saying the church was built between 1346 and 1348). Originally, the southern part of the street was called U sv. Ducha (like yesterday’s street), and the northern… Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 227: U Svatého Ducha
Originally published on X on 13 May 2024. Duch svatý, or svatý Duch, is not an obscure saint, disappointing as that is for those of us who were hoping Duch was a Celtic missionary or something. He’s the Holy Spirit. The Church of the Holy Spirit was built at some point between 1325 and 1350;… Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 226: Bílkova
Originally published on X on 12 May 2024. Bělidlo’ is bleach, whitener or a bleaching agent. It can also be used to denote a bleachery, the part of a textile factory where chemical bleaching of textiles is carried out. If you recognise the word, it might be because you’ve read Babička (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/25/prague-2-day-110-bozeny-nemcove/), as part of… Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 225: Náměstí Miloše Formana
Originally published on X on 11 May 2024. Miloš Forman was born as Jan Tomáš Forman in Čáslav (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/07/02/prague-3-day-178-caslavska/) in 1932. His mother, Anna, was arrested by the Nazis for lying about her involvement in the distribution of anti-Nazi leaflets, and died of typhus at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943. His father, Rudolf (actually not his biological… Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 224: Elišky Krásnohorské
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… Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 223: Náměstí Curieových
Originally published on X on 9 May 2024. Pierre Curie was born in Paris in 1859. He was educated at home by his parents (his father was a doctor), and took his baccalaureate in science when he was 16. Two years later – when he was just 18 – he would already have a degree… Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 222: Čechův most
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… Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 221: Dvořákovo nábřeží
Originally published on X on 7 May 2024. Antonín Leopold Dvořák was born in Nelahozeves, in Mělník District, in 1841, as the eldest of nine children. He started learning the violin at the age of six, also studying music theory, piano and organ during his schooldays. In 1857, he went to Prague to study at… Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 220: Břehová
Originally published on X on 6 May 2024. A ‘břeh’ is a coast or shore (if you’re dealing with the sea), or a bank (if you’re dealing with a river, which we clearly are here). And the street is so called because it leads from the right bank of the Vltava to the Old New… Continue reading
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Prague 1, day 219: U starého hřbitova (The Old Cemetery)
Originally published on X on 5 May 2024. This might be the Old (Jewish) Cemetery, but it’s not the oldest in Prague – we know that there was another one in the present-day New Town, dating back to at least 1254: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/14/prague-1-day-107-charvatova/. King Vladislav II had that one closed down in 1478. However, this cemetery… Continue reading
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What's in a Prague street name 