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).

  • Prague 1, day 37: Nerudova

    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) on Ostruhová street – which is today’s Nerudova.

    An ostruh is a spur – and these were produced on the street once upon a time.

    He and his mother moved to another house on the street, U tří černých orlů (Three Black Eagles), when his father died. Neruda would live with her until her death in 1869.

    Quitting his law studies, he started to work for local newspapers, writing for, amongst others, Tagesbote aus Böhmen, Prager Morgenpost, Čas and Hlas (being a member of the editorial staff at the latter two).

    In 1858, the Májovci – a group of writers taking their name from Karel Hynek Mácha’s poem Máj (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/07/07/prague-2-day-62-machova/) – published their first almanac. Nerudova was one of the key contributors.

    When Hlas merged with Národní listy in 1865, Neruda became the resident columnist. His columns on Prague society would lead to a five-volume series of books, Fejetony (volume four was actually about Paris, and volume five was also about his travels).

    He also wrote poetry which largely fell on deaf ears until a couple of decades after his death, translated Hungarian works into Czech, and was an avid collector of coins.

    Sadly, his columns also betray significant anti-Semitism, which may be one reason why, when the Nazis occupied Bohemia and Moravia, they changed the German name of the street but kept the Czech one as it was.

    Neruda never married (he’s pictured with his first love, Anna Holinová), struggled financially for much of his life, and developed both misanthropy and an addiction to alcohol.

    In 1888, he slipped on ice and shattered his kneecap, and, while he continued to write for Národní listy, he worked exclusively in *puts on best Czech accent from March 2020* home office mode after that.

    He died in 1891, aged 57, and is buried at Vyšehrad.

    Here is one of his most famous poems, put to music by Radůza in 2007:

    Many believe that Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda chose his pseudonym after Jan Neruda, but I wonder how likely it is that the latter’s work would have been available in translation in Chile prior to the former adopting the name pseudonym around 1920.

    In the ‘houses on Nerudova that Neruda didn’t live in’ corner, Bretfeld Palace (no. 35) used to be a social centre, where its founder (and rector of Charles University), Josef Bretfeld (1729-1820), welcomed, among others, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Giacomo Casanova.

    Morzin Palace, at number 5, has hosted the Romanian Embassy since 1925, and includes a plaque to Michael the Brave / Mihai Viteazul, one of the country’s greatest national heroes.

    And just opposite, Kolovrat Palace has hosted the Italians since 1924 (1924-5 clearly being big years for embassy-founding).

    I read that the interior is kind of buggered by recent renovations, but I don’t have photographic evidence.

    Kinský Palace, at number 15, was owned by the Ministry of Defence in the late 20th century, and now acts as accommodation for members of parliament.

    Žižkov had its own Nerudova running concurrently with this one until 1947: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/01/14/prague-3-day-136-jezkova/.

  • Prague 1, day 36: Tržiště

    Originally published on X on 10 October 2023.

    Until the Middle Ages, this was the location of a stream, flowing from Strahov to the Vltava.  This was then replaced with a street – Vlašská (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-31-vlasska/).

    Then, in the late 1700s, the marketplace on Malostranské náměstí was moved to here. 

    And – as you might be guessing if you don’t know already – a tržiště is a marketplace.  And this became its own street.

    However, it took until 1870 for the street to get its current name – iterations in place before then included ‘Nový trh’ (New Market), ‘Novotržní’ (ditto but an adjective), ‘Vaječný trh’ (Egg Market) and ‘Selský trh’ (Salt Market).

    As befits a long-ish street in Malá Strana, Tržiště is not without its fair share of interesting buildings.

    Number 15, Schönborn Palace, was built in the mid-1650s, and, in 1925, was purchased by some entity apparently known as the United States Government for USD 117,000.  It’s been their Embassy ever since.

    Next door, number 13, AKA Vratislav Palace, hosts the Irish Embassy and one of the 33 embassies that the Republic of Kosovo currently has around the world.

    Finally, U Ježíška (number 19) is apparently the site of a former nunnery. It was lived in by a young František Palacký (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/08/31/prague-2-day-145-palackeho-namesti/) when he first arrived in Prague and is now the site of Alchymist, possibly the best located hotel I can think of.

    Just adding this photo to the thread to show that, even in Malá Strana, you can find a bit of peace and quiet if you know where to look (and this was taken at a weekend).

  • Prague 1, day 35: Břetislavova

    Originally published on X on 9 October 2023.

    And, today, I give you options.

    OPTION 1

    Břetislav was born around 1002, the son of Oldřich and a woman who was not Oldřich’s wife (at least at the time).

    Dad (https://x.com/ed__ley/status/ed__ley/status/1618142655611047939…) became Duke of Bohemia in 1012, deposing (and blinding*) his brother Jaromír.

    * You’re welcome for the reminder that we haven’t got worse, we just haven’t got better.

    Father and son would manage to take back Moravia from the Poles in either 1019 and 1029, and Břetislav moved to Olomouc with his wife, Jitka ze Schweinfurtu, whom he had kidnapped from a monastery, because apparently being illegitimate makes you have to do these things.

    In 1033 Oldřich was deposed, imprisoned and replaced by Jaromír. In 1034, Jaromír was deposed, imprisoned and replaced by Oldřich. But Oldřich would die in the same year.

    Perhaps sensing that being Duke of Bohemia was f**king awful, Jaromír had been offered the position a third time upon Oldřich’s death, but refused in favour of Břetislav. And got murdered a year later anyway. Jesus.

    Once in power, Břetislav focused on getting himself some Polish territory – in 1039, he sacked Gniezno, from where he obtained the remains of Adalbert of Prague (Vojtěch) and brought them back home.

    The Polish royals were forced to move from Gniezno to Kraków, so we can kind of say that Břetislav had an effect on the Central European tourist industry which has lasted to this very day.

    However, if you have a talent, there’s always somebody who’ll get annoyed, so Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor, thinking Břetislav was a bit too good at this reclaiming Polish cities thing, invaded Bohemia in 1040.

    Břetislav’s troops gave him the what for at Brůdek (in the Šumava).

    In 1041, however, Henry tried again, with a lot more success, besieging Prague Castle. Břetislav was forced to pledge allegiance to Henry, who had realised that someone who is good in battle is a useful ally to have.

    Břetislav died in 1055 in Chrudim (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/06/24/prague-3-day-177-chrudimska/) while planning to invade Hungary. He’s buried in Prague Castle.

    OPTION 2

    Number 306/8 was once a pub called U Břetislavů. Which it definitely isn’t now: https://www.pamatkovykatalog.cz/dum-u-bileho-johanesa-15532173

    It also turns out that Prague had at least one other Břetislavova until 1937: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/02/26/prague-3-day-148-ondrickova/

    BONUS MATERIAL

    From the 14th century, the street was called V rámích soukenických (‘Drapery frames’), which sounds very grand in English but is meant to refer to tools used to stretch cloth products (please comment if you know what these are actually called in English).

    Then, from about 1600, it was known as Truhlářská (a ‘truhlář’ is a ‘joiner’), before getting its current name in 1870.

  • Prague 1, day 34: Jánský vršek

    Originally published on X on 3 October 2023.

    A vršek is the upper part of something, or a small hill.

    And if you want to know you Jan was, take a quick look at day 33: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-33-janska/.

    So this thread isn’t *too* brief, here’s one of the rare old-school German-language street signs you find round here:

    Jánský vršek also formed part of the annual Pražské schody (Prague Stairs) cycling race, where cyclists rode down 190 stairs. And did so again. And again. For an hour plus one circle.

    This seems to have been paused since 2019, given the official website is down and the event’s wallpaper on Facebook is currently this:

    Here’s some clips of the 2018 event, including Jánský vršek:

  • Prague 1, day 33: Jánská

    Originally published on X on 1 October 2023.

    This part of Malá Strana used to be a separate settlement called Obora (meaning ‘enclosure’ or ‘forest’). It was first mentioned in 1278, but a sanctuary had already been founded here the century before that.

    That first mention in 1278 occurred because, at the time, Bohemia was hit by a devastating famine which would last until 1282, and the church grounds were the scene of mass graves for the victims.

    The name of the church was Kostel svatého Jana Křtitele v Oboře – The Church of John the Baptist in Obora.

    First mentioned as a parish church in 1363, the church became deserted around 1400, and it wouldn’t be until 1546 that the Utraquists (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/28/prague-3-day-100-kalisnicka/) purchased it.

    This is Middle Ages Prague, of course, so it won’t be surprising to learn that Obora was burned down twice – once in 1354, and again by the Hussites in 1419.

    Proper renovation would start in 1626, but the parish would cease to exist by the end of the Thirty Years’ War in 1648, the year in which Obora officially became part of Malá Strana.

    Joseph II’s reforms led to the church being closed down in 1784, and sold off two years later, soon being converted into a residential building.

    Jánská contains the back ends of buildings whose façades we’ll get to when we reach Nerudova. Even without the house fronts (or perhaps because they’re elsewhere), views are quite beautiful.

    With a special mention for this one, which is quite something.

  • Prague 1, day 32: Šporkova

    Originally published on X on 30 September 2023.

    Once upon a time, there was a Renaissance house in this street, owned by, amongst others, the House of Martinice, a noble family who claimed to have originated from the ancient Vršovci clan.

    A descendant of that family, Heinrich Clam-Martinic, would end up being one of the last Prime Ministers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (he held the position for six months from 1916 to 1917).

    Later in the 17th century, the house was given a Baroque makeover, followed by an even more significant one in 1723-6.

    The book I have in front of me says the building was owned by one Count Johann Karl von Sporck (1722-1790), and has been known as Šporkův palác ever since.

    I have no reason to refute this, but it’s interesting that the blue plaque in the first post refers to František Antonín hrabě Špork / Franz Anton von Sporck (1662-1738), who I assume was a relative but haven’t been able to work out exactly which one.

    We do know that Franz Anton was a big deal, though, largely thanks to the Habsburgs and their insistence on dispossessing Protestants and giving their property to Catholics instead after Bílá Hora (1620).

    He inherited enough properties from his family to be able to acquire the village of Kuks (near Hradec Králové) and turn it into a properly Baroque spa resort (largely destroyed by a flood in 1740).

    Heading back to Prague 1, Šporkův palác became the property of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of St. Charles Borromeo in the late 19th century – and still is.

    Just next door is the Vlašský špitál, which is best explained by pointing you back to yesterday’s https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-31-vlasska/. Fittingly, this is now the location of the Italian Cultural Institute.

  • Prague 1, day 31: Vlašská

    Originally published on X on 29 September 2023.

    Way, way, back (as in ‘invading Macedonia in 270 BC’ way back), there was a Celtic tribe known in Latin as the Volcae.

    Their name found its way into Proto-Germanic as *Walhaz, which came to mean a foreigner who spoke a Romance language, or a Celt who had become romanised. Later, it also came to mean ‘nomad’.

    The word then started to refer to a huge number of places that you might be familiar with.

    *Walhaz, in Old Frankish, became *Walholant, the Land of the Romans. Those of you who remember that French ‘gu’ is often equivalent to Germanic ‘w’ may already have worked out that this then led to Gaule (French) and Gaul (English).

    *Walhaz made it way into Old English as Wealh, and, proving that humanity hasn’t changed that much over the centuries, started to be used to refer to any inhabitant of the Western Roman Empire. The Anglo-Saxons started to use it to refer to what we now call, yes, Wales.

    There was also a Wealh presence in the south-west of Britain, in a part of the island that looked a bit like a horn, or a carnu-. You might know it as Cornwall.

    Meanwhile, back on the mainland, *Walhaz also gave its name to Wallonia, and, for the first time, I now also (sort of) understand why Swiss Germans refer to the French part of Switzerland as ‘Welscher Schweiz’.

    And then there’s Wallachia, a principality founded in the 14th century, and united with another principality, Moldavia, in 1859. Seven years later, the two would adopt a single name – Romania. In Serbia, vlah is still used to denote a Romanian speaker.

    ‘Vlach’ has also been used, at different times and in different places, to refer to Slovaks, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Serbs and Albanians.

    This is all well and good, and has covered a heck of a lot of ground (literally). But Vlašská isn’t named after any of these.

    Because ‘Vlach’ has also been used to refer to Italians – and, indeed, it still is in Polish, where Italy is called Włochy (plural alert), and in Hungarian, where an Italian is an olasz and their country is Olaszország.

    And, in the mid-1500s, Italians settled in the area where the street is now. We got there eventually!

    In 1573, the Italians had become so numerous that they founded the Wallachian (later Italian) Congregation. It operated until 1942. My pic of the Congregation’s still-standing hospital isn’t the best, so enjoy this excellent old-school street sign instead.

    Vlašská includes a particularly important European embassy, but not the Italian one – that’s on Nerudova. Lobkowicz Palace hosts the German Embassy (it was also the Chinese one for a few years from 1949 onwards).

    The embassy was seen on televisions all over the world in 1989, when its garden became a temporary home to East Germans wishing to flee to the West.

    And to end today’s lesson about words which can really mean anything you want, Moravské Valašsko / Moravian Wallachia is the part of Moravia which borders Slovakia and contains Vsetín.

    It’s so called because ‘Vlach’ came to mean ‘shepherd’ or ‘pastor’ too.

    And one more – ever gone to the pub in Slovenia and drunk a Laško or ten? Well, those are brewed in the spa town of Laško, formerly Laško selo, or ‘Vlach village’.

  • Prague 1, day 30: Strahovské nádvoří (Strahov Courtyard)

    Originally published on X on 28 September 2023.

    For the beginnings of Strahov, take a look at yesterday’s thread and pretend it’s 1143: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-29-strahovska/.

    A little bit of tribute should also be paid to Jindřich Zdík, bishop of Olomouc from 1126 to 1150, who was as instrumental in founding the monastery as Vladislav II was.

    The first inhabitants of the monastery were Premonstratensian monks from Steinfeld (now in Germany on the French border). The Premonstratensian order is named after its place of origin, Prémontré, in Northern France.

    The remains of their founder, Norbert of Xanten, who died in 1134, would be transferred to Strahov five centuries later.

    (He’s on Charles Bridge too)

    The 1140s version of the monastery was made of wood; by the end of the century, it was replaced by a stone version.

    Much like every third building I mention in these posts, it suffered extensive fire damage in 1258, and again in the 1300s, and, in the 1420s, got treated with all the respect and care that you would expect of the Hussites.

    It wasn’t given a proper reconstruction until the early 1600s, only for the Swedes to ransack it and take much of the library with them in 1648. In the 1670s, architects Giovanni Domenico Orsi and Jan Baptista Mathey saw to its reconstruction.

    Strahov’s monks survived Joseph II’s reforms in the 1780s, but the communists eventually closed it down in 1950, and sent many of the monks to concentration camps.

    Restoration, and a reopening, would occur in 1992-3.

    One highlight of Strahov is the Basilica of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (Klášterní bazilika Nanebevzetí Panny Marie), whose current, baroque form was designed by Italian architect Anselmo Lurago following damage caused by French and Prussian bombardment in 1742 & 1751.

    Their YouTube channel does a good job of publishing some of its services:

    The Church of St Roch is impressive too, and the whole courtyard is nice and (relatively) quiet.

    But what Strahov is really famous for is its library, completed in 1783 and housing a pretty mind-blowing 200,000 books.

    Proving that Strahov doesn’t do small numbers, its gallery includes 1,500 paintings from the 14th to 19th centuries.

    Reviews of the library online highlight how beautiful it is, but also that the tour is quite short and doesn’t allow you to see very much of it. So here’s a 3D tour instead: https://strahovskyklaster.pano3d.cz

    Pretty stunning even from a Mac.

    The reason for the tour not being everything people might want it to be? The books need a special microclimate in order to stay in good condition, and your breath is not part of that microclimate.

  • Prague 1, day 29: Strahovská

    Originally published on X on 27 September 2023.

    In 1143, Vladislav II, the second King of Bohemia, founded a monastery. I don’t want to say huge amounts about that right now, because it’ll leave me with nothing to say tomorrow.

    Originally known as Sion (i.e. Zion), its name had changed to Strahov within a few years. ‘Strahov’ may be derived from the verb strážit, ‘to guard’ (střežit in modern Czech, strážiť in Slovak).

    Eventually, it became the name of the entire district. However, only part of it is in Prague 1; if you’re lucky enough to live in one of the villas round here, you may well be in Prague 5: https://www.idnes.cz/bydleni/na-navsteve/smichov-praha-opustene-domy-hotel-strahov-stadion-vanicek-prazdne-domy-bezdomovci-ruiny-soud.A190226_135834_dum_osobnosti_web

    Whereas, if you were lucky enough to be one of the 110,000-odd people at this gig on 18 August 1990, you were in Prague 6:

    Strahovská itself connects the monastery with Petřín. Make it all the way to the end, and you’ll reach Štefánikova hvězdárna / Štefánik’s Observatory, built in 1928 and named after Slovak astronomer Milan Rastislav Štefánik.

    These would be better pictures if there hadn’t been quite so much reconstruction work taking place when I was there.

    You can also escape down the hill without having to use your feet very much.

    Also worth mentioning are the ‘Strahov events’ of 1967.

    On 31 October, students living in the local dormitories had had enough of the constant power cuts, and 2,000 took to the streets, shouting ‘Chceme světlo, chceme více světla’ (We want light, we want more light).

    The security forces reacted with aggression, beating protesters, some of them so badly that they became unable to continue their studies.

    Mladá Fronta reported on the event – obviously, the students didn’t get a good write-up, but nor did those who beat them up. Public awareness of this would be one of the factors that contributed to the Prague Spring a few months later.

    Here’s a 2002 piece on the events from Czech Television: https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/1091682868-osudove-okamziky/403235100081006/

    And a pretty incredible piece on the events from a year on (great footage of many of the streets covered recently here, too): https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/1130615451-ceskoslovensky-filmovy-tydenik/218562262700006/

  • Prague 1, day 28: Na náspu

    Originally published on X on 26 September 2023.

    A násep or násyp is a ’causeway’, ’embankment’ (a železniční násep is a ‘railway embankment’) or ‘rampart’.

    Another word for ‘rampart’ is hradba. As in this lot: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/07/prague-1-day-6-marianske-hradby-the-marian-walls/.

    When fortifications were built around here, this street was artificially raised. The street was called Na Mariánských hradbech for a while in the 1800s (it got its current name in 1870), despite said fortifications being a bit further north.

    Only one house has an entrance on this street, and it was previously lived in by director Karel Kachyňa. Who was clearly a fan of Hradčany: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-20-novy-svet-new-world/.

    As you might expect for a street with only one house, it’s also lovely and peaceful and a good little escape from the crowds at the castle.

  • Prague 1, day 27: Dlabačov

    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 University, he joined the order of the Premonstratensians and adopted the name Bohumír.

    He was ordained in 1785, and would spend the rest of his life living at Strahov, where, from 1786, he was also in charge of the library.

    In 1780, Emperor Joseph II had issued the Edict on Idle Institutions, which outlawed monasteries which weren’t dealing with teaching, nursing or other practical work.

    This would lead to multiple closures of monasteries in Bohemia and Moravia; Dlabač visited these institutions and collected drawings, musical works and other written articles.

    By 1815, he’d collected enough materials to produce three volumes of the Allgemeine historisches Künstler-Lexikon für Böhmen und zum Theile auch für Mähren und Schlesien (General historical artist encyclopedia for Bohemia and partly also for Moravia and Silesia).

    Dlabač died in 1820, aged 61; the manuscript of his lexicon – which remains a useful source for learning about Czech cultural life at the time – is still to be found at Strahov.

    In ‘I’d never thought about name X being name Y, but now it’s incredibly obvious’ news, Bohumír, in German, is Gottfried.

  • Prague 1, day 26: Pohořelec

    Originally published on X on 24 September 2023.

    In 1091, Kosmas’s Chronicle referred to a market settlement here. However, it was destroyed in a fire a few years later, and, when the market was rebuilt, it was placed on the other side of the Vltava.

    Pohořelec – a name used for the area since the 1300s – derives from the verb hořet, to burn. In modern-day Czech, pohořet can be translated as ‘fail’, ‘come unstuck’ or ‘come a cropper’.

    True to its name, Pohořelec would also get burned down by the Hussites in the 1420s, and again in 1541, when a huge fire engulfed Malá Strana and Hradčany.

    The most spectacular building on Poheřelec is probably the former barracks, built in Neo-Renaissance style and owned by the Ministry of Defence, but currently out of use.

    Kučerův palác / Kučera Palace, at number 22, was restored to its original Baroque appearance in the 1990s. It’s now the office address of the clothing company Vermont (you may have been to one of their GANT stores).

    Šlikův palác / Šlik Palace, at number 25, was the city orphanage from 1875 to 1913. It had also been the birthplace of the founder of the ČSSD, Josef Boleslav Pecka-Strahovský, in 1849.

    No longer around is the house which Tycho Brahe lived in from 1599 to 1601, and used as an observatory (given some of the views from round here, a good choice).

    Ditto a statue to Josef Jiří Švec, who fought in the Battle of Zborov / Zboriv as part of the Czechoslovak Legion in 1917.

    Pleasing neither to the Nazis (who removed it) nor the Communists (who destroyed it), there are those who hope a replica will one day appear on the spot: https://www.vets.cz/vpm/mista/obec/237-praha-1/Poho%C5%99elec/

  • Prague 1, day 25: Promenáda Raoula Wallenberga

    Originally published on X on 23 September 2023.

    Raoul Wallenberg was born on Lidingö, an island in the Stockholm Archipelago, in 1912. His father had died of cancer three months earlier.

    His grandfather was, at this time, Swedish Ambassador to Japan, and made it his mission to show Raoul the world.

    Wallenberg studied in Paris, and then studied achitecture at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, graduating in 1935. After this, his grandfather sent him to work in South Africa, then in Haifa.

    In Haifa, he met Jews who had fled from Nazi Germany. Wallenberg, one-sixteenth Jewish through his mother’s family, became hugely interested in their plight.

    In 1941, Raoul’s cousin and godfather, Jacob, arranged a job for him at Melaneuropeiska Handelsaktiebolaget (The Central European Trading Joint Stock Company), which dealt in trade in food between Sweden and Hungary.

    Raoul would visit Hungary on both 1942 and 1943, at a time when the country was highly discriminatory towards its Jewish population, but had, so far, refused to send them to the concentration camps.

    Wallenberg’s boss, Kálmán Lauer, was a Hungarian Jew, and felt increasingly unable to visit his native land – hence Raoul becoming his representative.

    Hitler ordered the occupation of Hungary in March 1944, and a puppet state was set up. Mass deportation of Hungarian Jews to concentration camps in Poland would commence within weeks.

    The US government’s War Refugee Board (WRB) expressed its desire to send somebody from neutral Sweden to help to rescue the Jews. At the same time, the Swedish legation in Budapest was finding itself overloaded with requests for protection.

    In June 1944, Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave permission for Wallenberg to join the country’s legation in Budapest, financed by the WRB. Arriving in July, Wallenberg developed his plan to issue protection documents in order to save as many Jews as possible.

    Negotiations led to the bearers of such passports being regarded by the authorities as Swedish citizens – thereby saving them from deportation.

    Wallenberg also rented multiple buildings in Budapest and declared them to be protected by diplomatic immunity; almost 10,000 people would be housed in them.

    The Soviet Army launched an offensive against Budapest in October 1944. On 17 January 1945, Wallenberg, accused of espionage on behalf of the US, was called to their headquarters in Debrecen.

    Promptly transferred to the Lubyanka Prison in Moscow, there would be no news of him until 1957, when the Soviet authorities announced that he had died of an infection a decade earlier, when he was 34.

    However, even as late as the 1980s, there were prisoners in Siberian gulags who claimed to have seen a man fitting his description.

    In 2016, the Swedish Tax Agency declared him deceased in absentia, and gave a year of death of 1952: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37824692

    Wallenberg is an honorary citizen of Israel, Hungary, the UK, Canada and Australia: https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/remarks-signing-bill-proclaiming-honorary-united-states-citizenship-raoul

    In Budapest, there’s a memorial park named after him just behind the Dohány Street Synagogue, one of Budapest’s most-visited landmarks, located on what was the border of the Budapest Ghetto.

    Warsaw also has a street and a plaque dedicated to him: https://um.warszawa.pl/-/odsloniecie-tablicy-raoula-wallenberga

    And Bratislava has a memorial: http://jewishbratislava.sk/wallenberg/

    As well as being a place that really makes you think, the Promenade has maybe the best view of Strahov that you’re ever going to get.

  • Prague 1, day 24: Úvoz

    Originally published on X on 22 September 2023.

    An úvoz is a ‘sunken lane’ or a ‘hollow way’. The longer name for one of these is an úvozová cesta.

    ‘One of those’ being a road which cuts into the terrain, and is therefore a good bit lower than the land on either side of it.

    Those of us from the UK may know such roads from the North and South Downs, or the West Country. They’re also fairly frequent in the west of France.

    Originally, Úvoz was called Strahovská cesta (we’re getting to Strahov), and then, until 1870, it was known as ‘Hluboká cesta’ (Deep Road), for the same reasons as described above.

    Úvoz is the home of the Embassy of Sweden. More on Sweden and a particular Swede in one of this weekend’s posts.

    The street also hosts U Zlaté hvězdy (Golden Star), which also lies on Nerudova and Radnické schody (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-23-radnicke-schody/). Quite a location, and, since 2000, a hotel.

    There’s also U Kamenného sloupu (the Stone Column), former home of photographer Josef Sudek, and, a few days ago, very clearly having some work done.

    Great views from this street, too.

  • Prague 1, day 23: Radnické schody

    Originally published on X on 21 September 2023.

    You may remember me mentioning the former town hall in Loretánská yesterday, largely because it’s awesome: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-22-loretanska/

    In Czech, a town hall is called a radnice, because a council (rada) would meet there (see also: the German Rathaus).

    The adjective from radnice is radnický, and schody are ‘steps’.

    127 of these run directly south-east of the former town hall, hence their being given this name in 1870.

    Online sources say that there are two statues at the foot of the stairs. I can vouch for the first one of these, which is of Jan Nepomucký with two angels at his feet.

    But the other statue – of St Joseph and the baby Jesus – seemed to be off enjoying the unseasonally hot weather when I passed by.

    Ah. He’s getting some much-needed maintenance: https://www.ghmp.cz/vystavy/prazdno-po-svetci-a-void-after-a-saint/

  • Prague 1, day 22: Loretánská

    Originally published on X on 20 September 2023.

    We talked about Loreto and The Loretas recently: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/07/prague-1-day-17-loretanske-namesti/.

    But this is Hradčany, so we can happily move on to talking about beautiful buildings instead.

    Number 1 is Hradčany Town Hall, built around 1600. It fulfilled this role until 1784, when the four historical districts of Prague were merged into one. It’s way smaller than you’d expect a town hall to be, but also an excellent piece of Renaissance architecture.

    Trauttmansdorff Palace, at number 6, is named after a noble Austrian family.

    It’s served as a set of up-market apartments, a ‘Donucovací pracovna’ (literally ‘forced labour’ – an educational facility aimed at forcing people to get into regular work, a prison building, and, nowadays, as part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

    Some of the pics here show what a difference a new coat of paint can make: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Trauttmannsdorfsk%C3%BD_pal%C3%A1c_(Hrad%C4%8Dany)

    At number 9, Hrzánský palác was lived in by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk from 1894 to 1895. It’s now the representative office of the Presidency of the Government of the Czech Republic and the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic: https://www.idnes.cz/zpravy/domaci/premier-petr-fiala-ptam-se-ja-blesk-rozhovor-prezidentske-volby.A230131_093153_domaci_kop

    Masaryk’s daughter, the renowned sociologist Alice Masaryková (1879-1966), would live a few doors up on two occasions, as did Marcia Davenport (1903-96), an American writer best known for her biography of Mozart.

    Number 19 is the Jaroslav Ježek School for the Visually Impaired (interesting guy -more on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/01/14/prague-3-day-136-jezkova/).

    While those who enjoyed the candelabra on Hradčanské náměstí may be happy to know it has a cousin here, added in 1868.

  • Prague 1, day 21: U Kasáren (At the Barracks)

    Originally published on X on 19 September 2023.

    In 1572, the Ursuline religious order, or the Company of Saint Ursula (Czech: Řádu svaté Voršily) was founded in Italy.

    The order gradually spread around Europe, with seven nuns from Liège arriving in Prague in 1655 and, in 1664, setting up a convent in the New Town. In the 1720s, they relocated to Hradčanské náměstí (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/07/prague-1-day-13-hradcanske-namesti/).

    However, in the 1780s, Joseph II, who considered most monasteries and convents to be unproductive, had over 700 such institutions closed down across the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1784, this was one of them.

    Joseph considered that the building would be more useful if it were used to store military equipment – hence the street name. It had previously been known as Uršulinská or Voršilská (see above).

    The building would be used as barracks until 1945, after which it wasn’t used for anything at all until major reconstruction in the 1990s.

    I know I’ve mentioned it before, but please take a minute to freak out about how one of the narrowest streets you can imagine used to have a tram running along it: https://www.blesk.cz/clanek/regiony-praha-praha-volny-cas/447110/vazna-nehoda-tramvaji-na-hradcanech-stala-se-pred-vice-nez-100-lety.html

  • Prague 1, day 20: Nový Svět (New World)

    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 ‘new world’ from 1360 on.

    It burnt down twice (once during the Hussite Wars, and once during the 1541 fire that devastated this side of the Vltava). After the latter, the street started to take its current form.

    Nový Svět also does pretty well in the ‘[…] lived here!’ stakes, as we’ll see below.

    Number 1, U zlatého noha (The Golden Griffin), was once the residence of Tycho Brahe (previously covered, in brief, on https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/08/prague-1-day-19-keplerova/).

    It was also the birthplace of Jaroslav Drobný (1921-2001), who won Wimbledon in 1954 (representing Egypt).

    Number 2, U zlaté hvězdy (The Golden Star) was lived in by director Karel Kachyňa (1924-2004), most famous for 1970’s Ucho (The Ear), not released until 1989 due to its criticism of the Communist regime.

    Number 4, U zlatého žaludu (The Golden Acorn) was lived in by Rudolf Friml (1879-1972), best known for moving to the US and composing the operettas Rose-Marie and The Vagabond King.

    Number 10, U raka, named after the nearby stream’s considerable crab population, was inhabited by renowned author Arnošt Lustig (1926-2011) and the writer and journalist Ota Pavel (1930-73). Both are buried in Žižkov’s New Jewish Cemetery (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/28/prague-3-day-99-izraelska/).

    Number 19, U Zlatého beránka (The Golden Lamb), used to be the workshop of performance artist, sculptor and dissident Milan Knížák, who was also the director of the Czech National Gallery from 1999 to 2011: https://www.milanknizak.com/.

    Number 96/6 was lived in and used as a workshop by modernist painter Jan Zrzavý (1890-1977).

    And number 25, U Zlatého pluhu (The Golden Plow) was lived in by violinist Jan Ondříček (1832-1900) and his son František Ondříček (1857-1922), an honorary member of London’s Royal Philharmonic Society (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2023/02/26/prague-3-day-148-ondrickova/).

    Perhaps more famous than Nový Svět is Warsaw’s Nowy Świat, part of the historic route leading from the city’s Old Town.

    Perhaps it’s also just the case that I was there a few weeks ago and would like to share this picture of it.

  • Prague 1, day 19: Keplerova

    Originally published on X on 13 September 2023.

    Johannes Kepler was born Weil der Stadt, the “Gateway to the Black Forest”, in 1571, and was the son of a mercenary and a herbalist.

    Observing the Great Comet of 1577, and a lunar eclipse in 1580, he soon became fascinated by astronomy.

    The picture below is Jiří Jakubův Dačický’s engraving of the comet, as seen over Prague.

    While at university in Tübingen, he became a committed Copernican (i.e. he agreed that the planets don’t revolve around the Earth), and also became extremely adept at astrology and horoscopes.

    Before his studies were complete, he moved to Graz in 1594 to become a teacher of mathematics. It was here that he met his wife, Barbara Müller, whom he married in 1597.

    In 1600, Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (street in Prague 6, BTW) persuaded Kepler to visit him in Prague and become his assistant. Brahe (great astronomer, not great at maths) was complemented by Kepler (amazing at maths, too short-sighted to observe the stars well).

    However, the collaboration would be short-lived, as Brahe died a few days after attending a banquet in Prague in 1601 (either of a urinary problem or mercury poisoning). Rudolph II appointed Kepler to replace Brahe as the imperial mathematician.

    Kepler would give Rudolph both astrological and political advice. In return, he was promised what was meant to be a good income, but the imperial treasury was such a mess that what he really got was long periods without being paid and an angry wife.

    In 1604, Kepler saw a previously undiscovered supernova, which put paid to the ancient theory that the heavens were unchangeable. Only visible for three weeks, no supernova in the Milky Way has been observable to the naked eye since. It’s known as Kepler’s Supernova.

    During the first decade of the 1600s, Kepler also determined the true orbit of the planets for the first time.

    In 1611, Rudolph was forced to abdicate by his brother Matthias. Things got pretty grim for Kepler – Matthias was less supportive than Rudolph, Kepler’s research was compromised by religious tensions (he was a Lutheran), and then his son and wife died in quick succession.

    He left Prague in 1612 and settled in Linz, working as a teacher and as an expert in astrology and astronomy. In 1613, he remarried, to Susanna Reuttinger.

    In 1630, Kepler travelled to Regensburg for work purposes. He became ill, though, and died there a month later. His grave, and the churchyard it belonged to, were destroyed during the Thirty Years’ War. This is a sketch of his tombstone.

    A secondary school named after Kepler exists in Prague 6; there’s also a statue of him and Brahe in Keplerova itself.

    There are also craters bearing his name on the Moon and Mars, an asteroid, the main university in Linz, and… Kep1er, a K-pop girl group formed through a reality TV show called Girls Planet 999 in 2021.

    Hopefully a rival band called Br3he or similar will appear in the next season. (I’m kidding. I think.)

  • Prague 1, day 18: Černínská

    Originally published on X on 12 September 2023.

    Černínská was built around or before 1700.

    From the 1700s, this was known as Nový Svět (New World), as were current-day Nový Svět and Kapucínská (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/09/07/prague-1-day-16-kapucinska/). It then became Zadní (Lower) Nový Svět in the early 1800s, later being treated as part of Kapucínská before gaining its current name in 1870.

    Humprecht Jan Černín was born in Radenín (near Tábor) in 1628, into the Nedrahovice branch of the noble Černín family.

    Being a noble had benefits – his studies with the Jesuits meant he got to spend time in Florence, Rome, Paris and Brussels, and, in 1651, he inherited six estates from his late uncle.

    Černín served as chamberlain to Archduke Leopold Habsburg (the future Leopold I) from 1650, later becoming a viceroy of the Kingdom of Bohemia, an imperial envoy in Venice, and, in 1675, a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece, the highest Habsburg honour.

    His wealth and travels led him to become a collector of art, with a particular interest in Old Testament scenes, Greek mythology and depictions of modern literature. In the 1660s, he moved back to Prague (with his collection), and commissioned a palace to be built.

    While good progress was made on the construction, Černín died at Kosmonosy in 1682, and therefore never saw it in its completed state.

    (Painting by Karel Škréta, covered in the Prague 2 series: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/02/18/prague-2-day-34-skretova/)

    Černín Palace was badly damaged both during the Wars of the Austrian Succession (1740s) and the Battle of Prague during the Seven Years’ War (1757).

    It was given a Baroque reconstruction, and, from the 1770s, played various roles (as barracks, as an art gallery, as a homeless shelter and as an infirmary, among others).

    In 1934 – following reconstruction by the architect Pavel Janák – it became the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Czechoslovakia. It still serves the same purpose for the Czech Republic today.

    During the Nazi occupation, it was the office of the Reichsprotektor.

    A similarly ‘we’d rather not remember this’ moment came in 1948, when it was where Jan Masaryk, who had an apartment here, died in unconfirmed circumstances (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2024/03/17/prague-2-day-46-jana-masaryka/).

    Here’s some footage of the palace from earlier in the same year, including Masaryk:

    More cheerfully, the palace was also where the Warsaw Pact was dissolved, on 1 July 1991: https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/02/world/death-knell-rings-for-warsaw-pact.html

    Nice little collection of images of that moment here: https://www.imago-images.com/offers/437034/Archive/Archivbilder-zur-Politik/Warsaw-Pact-dissolution-decided,-30th-anniversary-on-1-July-?db=stock

    Nice gardens too.