What's in a Prague street name

Every street in Prague, one by one.

  • Prague 3, day 42: Pod Vrcholem

    Originally published on Twitter on 4 June 2022. Pod Vrcholem was built in 1925. Under the same peak as yesterday (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/20/prague-3-day-41-k-vrcholu/). That’s about it. And I promise there’s more gripping stuff to come. Continue reading

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  • Prague 3, day 41: K Vrcholu

    Originally published on Twitter on 3 June 2022. K Vrcholu was built in 1938, and translates as ‘to the peak’. We can keep this quite brief, as this is seemingly the same peak that ‘Na vrcholu’ is located on (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/19/prague-3-day-4-na-vrcholu/). Although I’m pretty sure that the southernmost part of Na vrcholu is lower than any… Continue reading

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  • Prague 3, day 40: K Chmelnici

    Originally published on Twitter on 2 June 2022. K Chmelnici was built in 1962. A chmelnice is a ‘hop garden’ (as in ‘beer’, not ‘skip and jump’, because Czech Republic). Chmel is the common hop, or humulus lupulus. Hop gardens are quite expensive to maintain, as hops are a climbing plant, so they need to… Continue reading

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  • Prague 3, day 39: Na Balkáně

    Originally published on Twitter on 1 June 2022. Na Balkáně was built in 1925, and translates as ‘In the Balkans’. ‘Balkán’ is indeed the name of this part of Prague, which is located mainly in Vysočany but also partially in Žižkov. Na Balkáně is home to a gardening settlement, founded in 1938, and one of… Continue reading

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  • Prague 3, day 38: Na Lučinách

    Originally published on Twitter on 31 May 2022. Na Lučinách was built in 1947. It translates as ‘in the meadows’, or, literally, ‘on the meadows’. If you walk towards the meadows on K Lučínám (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/19/prague-3-day-3-k-lucinam/), you end up in the meadows in Na Lučinách! Or you end up where the meadows were. I’m as supportive… Continue reading

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  • Prague 3, day 37: Nad Lukami

    Originally published on Twitter on 30 May 2022. Nad Lukami was built in 1938, and translates as ‘Above the meadows’. We’ve already been by/at/near the (priestly) meadow: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/18/prague-3-day-2-u-knezske-louky/. We’ve also headed towards them: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/19/prague-3-day-3-k-lucinam/. I probably didn’t write these in a logical order. And, whatever this meadow was when it still existed, it seems to… Continue reading

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  • Prague 3, day 36: V Okruží

    Originally published on Twitter on 29 May 2022. V Okruží was built in 1931. Does anybody like bad translations? Because the internet is giving me ‘in a ruff’. Which, if you replace the ‘r’ with an ‘h’, describes me as I try to make sense of this. Thankfully, my Lingea dictionary gives me the much… Continue reading

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  • Prague 3, day 35: Křivá

    Originally posted on Twitter on 28 May 2022. Křivá was built in 1931. Křivá means ‘crooked’, which is a reasonable representation of the street’s shape. It can also mean ‘trumped up’, but, as proved by the photo above, this is not a street that I have invented. Promise. As with Luční yesterday (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/19/prague-3-day-34-lucni/), there was… Continue reading

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  • Prague 3, day 34: Luční

    Originally published on Twitter on 27 May 2022. Luční was built in 1931. From 1931 to 1990, this was called Luční I. A nearby street was built in the same year, called, yes, Luční II. Clearly wanting to get a bit of that post-Berlin Wall vibe (or because Luční II got fed up with being… Continue reading

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  • Prague 3, day 33: Spojovací

    Originally published on Twitter on 26 May 2022. Spojovací was created in 1933. The literal translation would be ‘connecting’, although Google Translate seriously wants me to consider ‘syndetic’. Which is awesome. Spojovací was created by literally joining two other roads: Lipanská (there is another Lipanská in Žižkov, of course) and Husova. Not That Lipanská was,… Continue reading

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  • Prague 3, day 32: V Domově

    Originally published on Twitter on 25 May 2022. V Domově was built in 1925. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Prague didn’t become the capital of an independent country until 1918, and that the civil service had previously been based in Vienna. As Prague gained in importance, its population grew rapidly too. In 1920, it… Continue reading

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  • Prague 3, day 31: V Jezerách

    Originally published on Twitter on 24 May 2022. V Jezerách was built in 1925. I was going to say that this means ‘In the lakes’ and move on, but that would be v jezerech with a second e and not an á. One lake is a jezero, two lakes are jezera, and a small lake… Continue reading

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  • Prague 3, day 30: Na Jarově

    Originally published on Twitter on 23 May 2022. Na Jarově was built in 1925. It translates as ‘In Jarov’ or ‘On Jarov’ (in Czech, you tend to be in a town, but on a district). Jarov is the easternmost area of Žižkov, stretching east from V Zahrádkách (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/19/prague-3-day-29-v-zahradkach/) until Žižkov becomes Hrdlořezy*. Jarov was the… Continue reading

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  • Prague 3, day 29: V Zahrádkách

    Originally published on Twitter on 22 May 2022. V Zahrádkách was built in 1925. Road leading off Koněvova in ‘not named after a Hussite’ shocker. V Zahrádkách translates as as ‘in the gardens’. But a zahrádka is smaller than a zahrada (the standard term for ‘garden’). So it’s a small garden, a back garden, or,… Continue reading

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  • Prague 3, day 28: Jeseniova

    Originally published on Twitter on 21 May 2022. Jeseniova was built in 1875. Jan Jesenius / Ján Jesenský (1566-1621) was a physician, politician and philosopher, born in Wrocław (then Breslau) to a father of Slovak origin. He studied in Wittenberg, Leipzig and Padua, becoming professor of anatomy at the first of these in 1594. In… Continue reading

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  • Prague 3, day 27: Loudova

    Originally published on Twitter on 20 May 2022. Loudova was built in 1930. Matěj Louda z Chlumčan (died 1460) was commander of Písek, a Hussite warrior and diplomat, and owner of a farm in Chlumčany near Louny. He studied at Charles University. He didn’t complete his studies, but he did became aware of Jan Hus’s… Continue reading

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  • Prague 3, day 26: Viklefova

    Originally published on Twitter on 19 May 2022. Viklefova was built in 1930. It’s named after John Wycliffe (1320-1384-ish), an English theologian, and one of the first to translate the Bible into Middle English, though historians say he may not have done much of the translation himself. Wycliffe also wrote that papal claims of temporal… Continue reading

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  • Prague 3, day 25: Buchovcova

    Originally published on Twitter on 18 May 2022. Buchovcova was built in 1930. Zbyněk Buchovec z Buchova (died 1436?) was a Hussite warrior and commander (hejtman). Coming from a peasant family, he was elected one of the four governors of the newly founded town of Tábor in 1420 (one of the other three being Jan Žižka).… Continue reading

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  • Prague 3, day 24: Rečkova

    Rečkova was built in 1930. The name has nothing to do with Greece, which is Řecko in Czech (sometimes when I’m whizzing past here on the tram, I mistakenly think it’s called Řeckova, and yes, that name would make no grammatical sense). Jan Reček z Ledče was a maltster and a well-to-do citizen of Prague’s… Continue reading

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  • Prague 3, day 23: Jana Želivského

    Originally posted on Twitter on 16 May 2022. Jana Želivského was built in 1931. It was originally named Mladoňovicova, after Petr z Mladoňovic (died 1451), a Hussite writer and scribe to Jan z Chlumu (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/19/prague-3-day-18-chlumova/). Jan Želivský (1380-1422) was a priest during the Hussite Reformation, with a taste for somewhat apocalyptic sermons. On 30 July… Continue reading

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