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).

  • Prague 1, day 247: Řásnovka

    Originally published on X on 5 June 2024.

    Jan Řásný z Řásnova was, in the 17th century, the hetman of Strahov Monastery (which is on the other side of the river, but got covered on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-30-strahovske-nadvori-strahov-courtyard/).

    I’ll admit to not being entirely sure what a ‘hetman’ is when we’re dealing with a monastery – back in the day, ‘hetman/hejtman’ meant ‘military commander’; nowadays it’s a regional governor, and I’m assuming Strahov had something between the two.

    Anyway, between 1667 and 1679, Mr Ř z Ř bought some land round here and had a house built, called, appropriately, dům Řásnovka.

    I would put a picture of it here, but, in news that may have evaded the people who gave Řásnovka its current name in 1894, it’s actually on a different street (those who really want the photo are welcome to pop in on day 253).

    What you do get on Řásnovka are some pretty fine views of the back of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (AKA the building you find yourself staring at when you’re watching the sun set in the Letná beer garden).

    Opposite, at number 8, there’s a late (1941-50) functionalist office building by František Marek. It’s currently used by the Technical Administration of Communications of the Capital City of Prague (TSK HMP).

    Next to that, there’s a pretty fine oak tree, planted in 1850, and the only memorial oak in the Old Town.

    As you walk westwards, Řásnovka then turns into what feels like an entirely different street, and starts heading south-west.

  • Prague 1, day 246: Haštalská

    Originally posted on X on 4 June 2024.

    Same story as yesterday: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/11/05/prague-1-day-245-hastalske-namesti/; this is what the church looks like from here.

    The square was actually part of this street until 1928.

    It was at number 26 that Max Brod, Kafka’s closest friend, was born (i.e. I missed a trick by not posting this one yesterday, the 100th anniversary of Kafka’s death).

    The street also features U Zlatého stromu (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/11/01/prague-1-day-233-dlouha/), but in the least scenic way possible.

    But you can then go and wash down your disappointment with the architecture at La Degustation (number 18), which has a Michelin star: https://ladegustation.cz/en

  • Prague 1, day 245: Haštalské náměstí

    Originally published on X on 3 June 2024.

    Svatý Haštal is Saint Castulus, chamberlain to Emperor Diocletian.

    He sheltered Christians in his home, converted many people to Christianity, and also arranged for people to be baptised by Pope Caius.

    He was thanked for this by being being buried alive in a sandpit in 286. His wife, Irene of Rome, who tended to Saint Sebastian (as pictured), would be martyred two years later.

    An archaeological survey carried out in the 1990s revealed remnants of a church building here from the 1100s, although the first mention in writing (by Václav I) dates from 1234.

    A new, Gothic church was built in the 1300s; that, too, was replaced by a Romanesque church (built between 1375 and 1399).

    During the Hussite wars, the church was damaged not only by fighting, but also by floods; it remained Hussite until 1624, when it was handed over to the Catholics.

    The church burned down in a fire in 1689, which was followed by five years of reconstruction; its current interior dates from 1730 onwards, with a major renovation taking place in 1883.

    These insides include the supposed remains of Saint Castulus, brought to Prague and donated to the church by Charles IV.

    I would ask how the remains survived the Hussites, flooding and fire, but then I guess the Lord works in mysterious ways.

    The street was originally called ‘U starého Haštala’ (Old Castulus), and then Haštalský plácek, before receiving its current name in 1926.

    Castulus, meanwhile, is the patron saint of shepherds, and should be invoked when you’re worried about lightning, wildfires, drowning, cowherds, having your horse stolen, or erysipelas, a form of cellulitis.

  • Prague 1, day 244: U milosrdných

    Originally published on X on 2 June 2024.

    Originally, the street was known either as U svatého Kříže – after a now-defunct church of the Holy Cross – or as U svaté Anežky (see yesterday: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/11/05/prague-1-day-243-anezska/).

    Around 1350, a hospital was built here, founded by one Bohuslav z Olbramovic, and completed at the instigation of Arnošt from Pardubice, the first Archbishop of Prague.

    He consecrated the hospital’s chapel – Kaple svatého Šimona a Judy / the Chapel of Sts. Simon and Jude – in 1354.

    In 1615, the chapel was purchased by Václav Vilém z Roupova, a Czech noble and one of the leaders of the anti-Habsburg rising in 1618-20 (who fled afterwards and avoided execution).

    He initiated the conversion of the chapel into a church for the choir of the Church of the Brethren, but the vault collapsed in 1617, and, after consecration in 1620, time wasn’t exactly on the non-Catholics’ side.

    The site was taken over by the Order of Merciful Brothers – Řád milosrdných bratří – at the end of 1620, and they set about building a monastery.

    The order – officially known as the Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of Saint John of God (and colloquially in Italian as the Fatebenefratelli – ‘Do-good brothers’) – had been founded in Italy 1572 by the Portuguese soldier turned healthcare worker, João de Deus.

    The Monastery of the Merciful Brothers and the new monastery church of Saints Simon and Jude were ready by about 1653; they underwent Baroque reconstruction in the early 1700s.

    Meanwhile, the order increased the capacity of the hospital – by 1703, it had an extra floor and could accommodate almost 90 patients. It continued to grow in importance as it became a branch of Prague University’s Faculty of Medicine.

    In the 19th century, Franz Joseph II supported the hospital, which eventually had capacity for 200 patients, making it the largest hospital in Bohemia.

    The front of the hospital was completed in 1926.

    Nowadays, it’s the most important Czech institution for the treatment of breast cancer, and its orthopaedic department is frequently used by top athletes. The hospital treats over 80,000 people annually.

    Back to Simon and Jude: a plaque on the south side of the church says that both Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played its organ when they visited Prague.

    Inevitably, the Merciful Brothers were thrown out by the Communists in 1950; nowadays, the church is often the site of concerts by the Prague Symphony Orchestra: https://www.fok.cz/en/church-st-simon-and-st-jude.

  • Prague 1, day 243: Anežská

    Originally published on X on 1 June 2024.

    Přemysl Otakar I was Duke of Bohemia from 1192 to 1193, and again from 1197 to 1198. In the latter year, he became the third King of Bohemia, and would stay as such until 1230.

    He was the first ruler of Bohemia who inherited the title of King for his children.

    And there were quite a few of these children – thirteen in total, including a future king (Václav I), and youngest child, Anežka (Agnes), who was born around 1211.

    From the age of three, Anežka was raised in convents, first in Bohemia and later in Austria, when her father arranged for her to marry Henry VII of Germany.

    When this plan failed, Anežka was proposed to by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor. However, when Otakar I died in 1230, she decided that she wasn’t going to get married.

    In 1209, Francis of Assisi (pictured on Charles Bridge: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/09/prague-1-day-68-karluv-most-charles-bridge/) had founded the Order of Friars Minor (or the Franciscans), with an emphasis on missionary work and teaching.

    A follower, Chiara Offreduccio, or Clare of Assisi, then founded the Order of Poor Ladies, or the Poor Clares, which followed a rule of strict poverty. The order devoted itself to caring for the sick.

    The first follower of the Poor Clares in Bohemia was Alžběta Durynská, or Elizabeth of Hungary (1207-31), who was also Anežka’s cousin.

    The order needed a convent in Prague, and this was built quite quickly – by 1234, it had already been consecrated, and Anežka entered the order on 25 March. She had her own chapel within the complex.

    When Václav I – who had made a significant financial contribution to the construction – died in 1253, he was buried here, as his wife, Kunigunde of Hohenstaufen, had been in 1248: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tomb_of_Wenceslaus_I_of_Bohemia#/media/File:Ane%C5%BEsk%C3%BD_kl%C3%A1%C5%A1ter,_Star%C3%A9_M%C4%9Bsto_(Praha),_Hlavn%C3%AD_m%C4%9Bsto_Praha_12.jpg

    After his death, Anežka and her nephew, Přemysl Otakar II, began construction of a mausoleum. The chapel, meanwhile, became the most important repository of relics in Bohemia.

    Anežka died in 1282, and her role was taken over by Kunhuta, the teenage daughter of Přemysl Otakar II, but the convent became less of a priority for the royal family, not getting a proper reconstruction until the reign of Charles IV.

    When the Habsburgs came into power, they moved Dominicans into the convent, although the Poor Clares moved back in later in the 1600s.

    The convent was closed in 1782.

    The building has been owned by the National Gallery since 1963; it hosts a permanent exhibition of Medieval Art in Bohemia and Central Europe.

    Anežská is also home to what claims to be the smallest house in Prague, built in 1853, and – this will automatically make the house seem way less cute – used as a brothel for forty years until 1922.

  • Prague 1, day 242: Ve Stínadlech

    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/).

    From 1923, he was involved in the scout movement; in 1925, he led a scout camp, and then became leader of a scouting group in Prague (he would stay in that position for sixty years).

    It was also in 1923 that his first short story was published in a scouting magazine. In the 1930s, he became the editor of various youth magazines published by the Melantrich publishing house (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/14/prague-1-day-194-melantrichova/).

    In 1938, he first published a comic strip called Rychlé šípy (The Rapid Arrows). The Arrows were five boys: Mirek, Jarka, Jindra, Červenáček (Red Cap) and Rychlonožka (Speedy) and a dog, Bublina (Bubble).

    The gang would then become the lead characters in a trilogy of novels: Záhada hlavolamu (Mystery of the Puzzle; 1941), Stínadla se bouří (Stinadla is rioting; 1946) and Tajemství Velkého Vonta (The Secrets of Great Vont; 1986).

    And these novels were set in a fictitious district of an unnamed city, which had winding streets and was falling apart slightly despite the constant modernisation of the surrounding districts. Perfect for nighttime adventures, then.

    Stínadla has been translated into English as ‘The Shades’; however, ‘stínat’ means ‘to behead’, so it’s likely that the district’s name came from its past as the site of gallows.

    If you want to get an idea of what Stínadla would’ve looked like, here’s the first episode of a television adaptation of Záhada hlavolamu from 1969:

    Stínadla became so famous that other authors used it in their own works too.

    Fogler died in 1999, having left behind him some of the most loved characters in the history of Czech youth fiction.

    The street, meanwhile, was nameless until 2007, when it was renamed as ‘In Stínadla’ as a tribute to Fogler and his work.

    Looking at this picture, you’ll probably understand why the ‘street’ was nameless for so long; it can be assumed that not one person had to change their ID or business cards as a result of this change.

    I had a major Enid Blyton phase when I was about eight; right now, I’m jealous of the Czech kids who got to have a Rychlé šípy era instead.

    Finally, I was writing for a Eurovision mailing list back in 2007 (mailing list! My goodness), and was unsure how to translate this song from the Czech selection that year. Only took seventeen years to find out (also: a little scary but robbed).

  • Prague 1, day 241: U obecního dvora

    Originally published on X on 30 May 2024.

    Around here, we’re near the end (or start) of one of the oldest trade routes between Prague (specifically Old Town Square), Bohemia and Germany.

    Therefore, around the 15th century, the Obecní dvůr (Municipal Court) was built here, as a yard owned by the Municipality of Prague. However, its history isn’t all that well documented, and the first written mention of Obecní dvůr is from the 1700s.

    One historian says it consisted of four farm buildings, shops selling cloth, a brewery, a malthouse and a large garden.

    We can say, with more certainty, that, in the 18th century, it had stables (two of which survive), and was used to store hay, fodder and coal.

    In the 1820s, it was used by fire patrols, although it would be another three decades before Prague had a professional fire department. This, too, was located here (until 1926).

    In the early 20th century, during the rehabilitation of Josefov, a large chunk of the court was demolished, and, from 1926, it was used partially as residences, partially for small businesses.

    It underwent reconstruction in the last decade: https://www.stavbaroku.cz/printDetail.do?Dispatch=ShowDetail&siid=1504.

    U obecního dvora includes Dům U Censorů, which dates back to at least 1403, but was given its current form in 1795. It was, indeed, where censorship of books was carried out.

    It was also once the home of the Austrian mathematician Christian Doppler (1803-53), who was a professor at Prague Polytechnic and described the Doppler effect (which states that the perceived frequency of a wave depends on the source and the observer).

    Meanwhile, next door, we’ve got the birthplace of Josef Mánes (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/01/18/prague-2-day-11-manesova/). His father Antonín worked in a studio in U Censorů.

  • Prague 1, day 240: Kozí

    Originally published on X on 29 May 2024.

    Until the 14th century, this was known as Starý uhelný trh (Old Coal Market), or Forum carbonum antiquum, after a market which was here but later moved to, yes, Uhelný trh: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/26/prague-1-day-147-uhelny-trh/.

    After that, it became known as Hrnčířská, thanks to its local craftsmen (a ‘hrnčíř’ is a potter or ceramist).

    Then, from 1824, one part was called Horní Kozí, and the other Dolní Kozí (i.e. there were upper and lower parts). These were renamed as just plain Kozí in 1902, when the street was also widened.

    ‘Kozí’ is the adjective from ‘koza’, which means ‘goat’. The name of the street commemorates a local market where goats were sold (for another animal-based market, see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/17/prague-1-day-123-vaclavske-namesti/).

    Kozí certainly feels like two different streets glued together (the map above may also suggest this).

    Noteworthy buildings on the street include the headquarters of the Český báňský úřad / Czech Mining Office at number 4, built between 1898 and 1899 based on a design by the architect Antonín Rosenberg.

    While number 7 is the Dům Společenstva pražských stavitelů / House of the Society of Prague Builders, built slightly earlier (1876), based on a design by Josef Schulz.

    Zoom in, and you’ll see busts commemorating Petr Parléř, Matěj Rejsek and Benedikt Rejt, three of Prague’s most important architects.

    Parléř can be thanked for reasonably well-known constructions such as St Vitus Cathedral and Charles Bridge; Rejsek has a street which I discussed way back in our Vinohrady era: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/19/prague-2-day-76-rejskova/.

    Because we haven’t had any entertaining vocabulary in a while, a ‘kozí bradka’ is a goatee.

  • Prague 1, day 239: Týnská ulička

    Originally published on X on 28 May 2024.

    We’re still in ‘we’ve covered this, haven’t we’ territory: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/12/prague-1-day-189-tynska/.

    So far, we’ve had Týn, Týn Street and, now, Little Týn Street (or Týn Lane, if that’s how you’re feeling).

    But we’re not without things to talk about.  For a start, U Černého jelena (The Black Stag) was also mentioned in the Týnská thread:

    And U Černého slona (The Black Elephant) still has some of its 13th-century elements in the cellar.  From 1909 to 1990, it was a hardware store owned by Eduard Čapek, and then his son Antonín Čapek – the only private hardware store that remained open during communism.

    The street also offers a different (read: less impressive) viewpoint on Kinský Palace (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/12/prague-1-day-190-staromestske-namesti-old-town-square/).

  • 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. Especially of Palác Granovských z Granova / Granovský Palace.

    In 1558, Jakub Granovský z Granova, who was responsible for running the Ungelt, obtained a plot of land from Ferdinand I on one condition: he would oversee the opening and closing of the Ungelt’s gates.

    He promptly set to reconstruction of the Ungelt House – which had stood here for centuries – giving it a Renaissance makeover, with excellent sgraffiti showing Biblical and mythological scenes.

    It belonged to the Granovský family until 1620 (strong intimation: they weren’t Catholics), and later owners divided the palace in two. From 1713, it was used as a mortuary.

    During communism, one floor was used as warehouse space, whereas another was used for teaching purposes. Now owned by the Archbishopric of Prague, it’s part office space, part restaurant.

    In front of the palace, there’s a statue called Den a Noc (Night and Day), a copy of a work from 1911 by Jan Štursa (1880-1925).

    Here are some other pics of Týn, for the sake of completeness. Not quite a hidden gem, but also not quite as packed with people as the places which surrounds it.

  • 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 local cloth weavers, who worked nearby on Haštalské náměstí (coming up in about a week).

    A cloth weaver in Czech is a ‘soukeník’, and they too have a street named after them in Prague 1, which will get a thread at some point in the 260 range.

    In other words: there really are a lot of these streets, aren’t there.

  • 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 – somehow not mentioned in any of these threads to date – moved in around the 1230s, took over the church, and also had their Old Town Command built nearby, probably simultaneously with the development of the Old Town fortifications.

    The command only lasted about 200 years; the church underwent reconstruction around the same time that the command was abandoned, and became part of the Norbertinum, a seminary for Premonstratensian canons.

    The church was destroyed in 1792, which is also when the street was renamed, as if that’s some sort of compensation for the loss of what might have been quite an attractive building (in an area of the Old Town which… could do with a few more).

    This also explains why this post has a minimum of photographs to accompany it. If you want to know what the spot the church was located on looks like now, please enjoy this picture of the Kotva shopping centre.

    Bonus St Benedict trivia: he’s the patron saint of so many things that I’m just going to do a copy-and-paste from Wikipedia here.

  • 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 became known as Masný trh (‘Meat market’), while, at other times, U masných krámů (‘The Meat Shops’) and Masnotrhová (also ‘Meat market’, but an adjective) were used.

    In 1870, various streets were joined together, and were called Masná.

    There are several streets around here named after markets. Here’s another one: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/11/prague-1-day-184-rybna/.

  • 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 in Venice in 1604, and, while we now associate it with property purchases, it also used to be payable on most legal documents, including cheques, receipts and marriage licences.

    And, at number 1 on this street, the Stará kolkovna was the stamp duty office.

    It’s not there anymore – it was destroyed in the ‘asanace’ in 1904 – and its replacement now makes me understand how all the Kolkovna restaurants across Prague got their name.

    The destruction becomes all the more disheartening when you learn that Václav IV apparently had this building as his main non-Prague-Castle residence in the city.

    Thanks to a Norwegian grant, you can see this publication about the attempts to rescue the building here: https://www.digitalniknihovna.cz/mlp/view/uuid:da31fbd0-1df7-11de-b478-0030487be43a?page=uuid:95721470-1df8-11de-8762-0030487be43a.

    If you’re not into Czech food, you can walk to the other side of the road and have a chat with Jimmy Dean (maybe about how those upper floors need a bit of love).

  • 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 a key thoroughfare, leading from Prague’s main market (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/12/prague-1-day-189-tynska/) to Petrská čtvrť, a district of the New Town which was mainly inhabited by German-speaking merchants.

    And which will be the focus of the last few posts in this series (for those keeping count, I think we’ve got exactly fifty streets left now).

    It then led to the area around Štvanice (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/23/prague-1-day-214-siroka/), from which it was possible to reach Eastern Bohemia.

    If you compare Dlouhá to other long-ish streets in the Prague 1 series, it’s – let’s not beat around the bush – not especially packed with historical anecdotes. But it’s not devoid of buildings worth mentioning, either.

    Divadlo v Dlouhé, founded in 1996, is a municipality-run repertory theatre which prides itself on its diverse repertoire and its 80,000 annual visitors: https://divadlovdlouhe.cz/o-nas/

    It’s particularly renowned for two festivals – Dítě v Dlouhé, which is aimed at younger children (and took place last month), and 13+, which is aimed at teenagers (and took place in January).

    There’s also Roxy, a music club founded in 1992 in the premises of a former cinema. https://instagram.com/roxyprague/ gives an idea of who plays there.

    Also worth a mention is U Zlatého stromu (The Golden Tree), created when two Gothic houses were joined around 1600. The tree remains (not quite sure how golden it is now).

    Is it wrong to suggest that all these places could do with, you know, a bit of colour?

    Anyway, let’s finish this off with one of the greatest things ever to involve the word ‘Dlouhá’:

  • 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 transliteration of the Latin word for ‘saviour’; churches dedicated to ’St Salvator’ are most likely dedicated to Christ himself, as he is believed to be the saviour of the world / Salvator Mundi.

    However, following the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, the church was confiscated, and, in 1621, Šlik would be one of the nobles executed on Old Town Square for their role in the Estates Uprising (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/10/12/prague-1-day-190-staromestske-namesti-old-town-square/).

    In 1624, the church was given over to the Order of Minims, a religious order founded by Francis of Paola in Italy in the 1400s (they’re known as the Paulanerorden in German, and as ‘pauláni’ in Czech).

    Actually, they’re officially known as the Řád Nejmenších bratří sv. Františka z Pauly in Czech, but character limits.

    They already had a monastery, the last remnants of which can still be found on Old Town Square.

    When both the church and the monastery were abolished, the church building began to be used as a mint (from 1795 to 1848).

    In 1863, the building was purchased by the Czech Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession, which uses it to this day.

    The street itself, however, wasn’t created until 1902, as part of the ‘clean-up’ / asanace of the Old Town.

    Also of note on Salvátorská is the Art Nouveau Štencův dům, built between 1909 and 1911. It housed what was apparently the most modern printing house in Austria-Hungary (albeit briefly, if it was only completed in 1911).

    It’s now a rather fancy-looking co-working space: https://www.opero.cz/en.

  • 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 a dictionary definition, a ‘polyhedron used in games of chance’.

    The oldest die was found near the Indus River and is believed to be about 5,000 years old; they became particularly popular in Ancient Rome.

    And they were so popular that we’re now looking at a street which is named after the people who made them (please let me know if there’s a more interesting word for that than ‘diemaker’).

    Apparently, their popularity in the Middle Ages meant that there were multiple decrees and laws banning them (this sounds extreme, but you assume that there was some sort of anti-gambling drive involved).

    The street’s name has shifted subtly over time, having gone from Kostková to U kostkářů to Kostečná.

  • 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 are detained who have been charged but not convicted), and regular ‘věznice’, which house those who have been convicted.

    Of the 25 non-remand prisons in the country, none are in Prague; of the ten remand prisons, two are in Prague – in Pankrác and Ruzyně.

    We’ve covered a few former prisons in previous posts, though: this one includes a mention of the White Tower at Prague Castle: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/19/prague-3-day-21-cerninova/.

    And we can’t talk about Prague Castle without talking about the Daliborka: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/05/prague-1-day-4-zlata-ulicka-u-daliborky/.

    Nor without heading outside of the Castle and looking at Domeček, used by the Austro-Hungarians, the Nazis and the communists: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/07/prague-1-day-16-kapucinska/.

    There was also one in the New Town in the 19th century, supposedly the biggest in Bohemia at the time (it’s not mentioned in the thread, and I’ll see if it’s mentioned in the thread for a neighbouring street): https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/01/prague-2-day-150-dittrichova/.

    So, it turns out it was placed in the ‘hrádek’ (small castle) built here: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/01/prague-2-day-159-na-zderaze/.

    Realising that these Prague 3 / Prague 2 posts still have things that could be added to them is a reminder of just how endlessly this city fascinates me.

    Not that that’s enabling me to tell you about the prison I was *actually* supposed to write about today.

  • 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 Jewish population therefore crossed the river and settled in the Old Town.

    However, we’re not sure if they moved to an existing Jewish settlement, or founded a new one. What we do know is that a synagogue was built here around the 12th century and was called the Altschul (the Old School).

    Apparently, it was used by Jews of Byzantine origin, and was located at a slight distance to the Jewish town and its inhabitants, as the two groups didn’t quite see eye to eye.

    The synagogue suffered greatly over the years – it was burnt down during the 1389 pogrom, as well as in 1516 and 1689. It also got closed down, as ordered by Leopold I, from 1693 to 1704.

    It was also subject to huge mistreatment from 1745 to 1748 (Maria Theresa had ordered the Jews out of Prague in 1744), requiring reconstruction in 1750… only to get burnt down again in 1754.

    It got reconstructed shortly after (this picture is from 1769), but, in 1867, was deemed not big enough to suit the community’s needs. It was demolished and replaced by the Spanish Synagogue.

    Which I assume is so called because of its Moorish Revival style (which is giving me enjoyable memories of a summer spent doing Cádiz-Seville-Granada-Córdoba in 2011).

    Like so many synagogues, this one fell into disrepair – although that happened relatively late, in the 1970s – and was revived in 1998, under the management of the Jewish Museum.

    Of the six surviving synagogues in Josefov, this is the newest, and we’ve now covered all of them; there are eight further synagogues in Prague, of which only one is in the centre: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/18/prague-1-day-130-jeruzalemska/.

    U staré školy also includes the Robert Guttmann Gallery, named after a Jewish painter of naïve art, who was born in Sušice (South Bohemia) in 1880 and died in the Łódź Ghetto in 1942.

    Next door to that is the administrative museum of the Jewish Museum in Prague.

  • 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 part was called Sv. Kříže, after a Church (and Monastery) of the Holy Cross which existed from 1256 until 1783.

    Dušní does include the Spanish Synagogue – but that’s a much better fit for tomorrow’s post.