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 3, day 81: Roháčova

    Roháčova was built in 1872.

    A ‘roháč’ is a stag beetle. Sadly, this is not the insect section of Žižkov, and Roháčova is named after – who else? – a Hussite.

    Jan Roháč z Dubé / Jan Roháč of Dubá was a Taborite, appointed as a hetman by Jan Žižka in Lomnica nad Lužnicí in 1420.

    After Žižka’s death, he became head of the Orphans, a radical Hussite sect.

    In the Battle of Lipany (1437), he was captured, but soon released. He then retreated to his castle, Sion, where he created the last focus of resistance against Emperor Sigismund.

    After four months, the castle defences were breached by Bohemian and Hungarian troops. Roháč was led to Vítkov Hill, where he was hanged on the highest rung of the gallows.

    Bonus material: Roháčova was shorter until 1898, when it gobbled up a street called Kališnická (whose name I will explain at a later date, as there’s another street called that in the area, built in 1910).

    This happened yet again in 1947, when Harantova (which was Kalvinova from 1940 to 1945) was incorporated into the street.

    The Harants were a Czech noble family (so the liquidation of a street named after them in the early days of communism totally makes sense).

    Kalvínova, the name given to the street during the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, came from the French theologian, pastor and reformer John Calvin (1509-1564).

  • Prague 3, day 80: Prokopovo náměstí

    Originally published on Twitter on 12 July 2022.

    Prokopovo náměstí (Prokop Square) was built in 1872.

    We’ve already covered Prokop Holy all of three days ago: https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/23/prague-3-day-77-prokopova/.

    So let’s pad this out with some brief facts about the square itself.

    It used to be the scene of the largest market in Žižkov, as well as the district’s first post office, and, until 1890, the Žižkov Town Hall.

    It’s also known for having an equestrian monument to Jaroslav Hašek, created by Karel Nepraš and Karolína Neprašová.

    There’s a nice picture of the market back in the day on https://prahain.cz/zivot-ve-meste/po-top-prokopovo-namesti-pred-sto-lety-a-dnes-4875.html….

  • Prague 3, day 79: Sabinova

    Originally published on Twitter on 11 July 2022.

    Sabinova was built in 1875.

    Until 1962, the street was called Jaboukova (named after either Jakoubek ze Stříbra or Jakoubek z Vřesovic, both prominent Hussites in the early 15th century).

    Karel Sabina (1813-77) was, among other things, a writer, poet, playwright, journalist and politician.

    Despite growing up in poverty (and claiming to be the son of a Polish noble), he studied philosophy and law in Prague and Vienna (though he didn’t finish his studies).

    During this time, he became a member of Karel Hynek Mácha’s circle, which helped organise a collection for Poles fleeing the November Uprising in 1831.

    From 1835, he started publishing articles in journals, which brought him into conflict with the Austrian regime, including censorship and police surveillance.

    Increasingly politically active, he was arrested in 1849 for taking part in the May Coup, and was sentenced to death in 1851.

    Ultimately, the sentence was reduced to imprisonment (in Olomouc prison), and he was freed in 1857.

    In 1870, he was accused by a newspaper of being a police informant, snd was found guilty of the same at an unofficial trial (at which the jury included Jan Neruda and Vítězslav Hálek) in 1872.

    He became an outcast from this moment, living in hiding, having his books withdrawn from circulation, and being obliged to write under pen names.

    Sabina died of exhaustion in 1877.

  • Prague 3, day 78: Chelčického

    Originally published on Twitter on 10 July 2022.

    Chelčického was built in 1885.

    Petr Chelčický (1379-1460-ish) was most likely a pseudonym for Petr Záhorka, born in the Chelčice region (in South Bohemia).

    He was a writer, translator and theologian, one of the most important figures of the Czech Reformation.

    He didn’t have a university education, but was more knowledgeable than most of his contemporaries who did.

    He was primarily influenced by Jan Hus and John Wycliffe, and his teachings were, in turn, an influence on the Quakers and the Baptists.

    He was a pacifist and an opponent of the clericalization of the church. These views were radical at the time, to the extent that he is sometimes referred to as the first Czech anarchist thinker.

  • Prague 3, day 77: Prokopova

    Prokopova was built in 1872.

    Prokop Holý (the Bald) was born around 1380 in Prague. The identity of his family is unclear, but it’s known that he was born into wealth and was able to travel extensively around Europe as a young man.

    His uncle ordained him as a priest, but, no later than 1420, he became a follower of Jan Žižka, and started to preach in Tábor.

    He probably became known as ‘the bald’ after undergoing tonsure, which is the practice of cutting or shaving some or all of the hair on the scalp as a sign of religious devotion or humility.

    He became one of the field captains of the Taborite groups in 1424, and was instrumental in their victories at Ústí (1426), Zwettl (1427) and Domažlice (1431 – see also https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/19/prague-3-day-14-domazlicka/).

    That last battle stopped the raids by Catholic army groups into Bohemia, and ushered in the opposite, a period of Hussite army groups invading neighbouring lands.

    In 1433, Prokop defended more radical forms of Hussitism at Basel. In the following year, he died at the battle of Lipany, which I will keep fairly quiet about for now as that has a street of its own which I haven’t covered yet.

    Part of current-day Prokopova was a different street, called Nákvasova, until 1975. Jan Nákvas was a Hussite priest, burned as a heretic in Bavaria in 1419 after being captured by German Catholics.

  • Prague 3, day 76: Sauerova

    Originally published on Twitter on 8 July 2022.

    Sauerova was built in 1975 (apologies for the obvious defects in the street sign).

    František ‘Franta’ Sauer was born to a poor family in Žížkov in 1882. He trained as a locksmith, spent some time as a journeyman, and then returned to the district.

    He was the leader of the group of Žižkovites who tore down the Marian column on Old Town Square in 1918. He went to trial for this in 1924, but the case was considered time-barred.

    Around the same time, he set up an organisation in Žižkov, Černá ruka (Black hand), which moved non-residents into secret apartments.

    He also claimed to have participated in a reenactment of the Battle of Vítkov in 1920, getting the main participants drunk and thereby helping the crusader side to win.

    He was most known for being a close friend of Jaroslav Hašek, and also the publisher of the first edition of The Good Soldier Švejk.

    After WW2, he was arrested for publishing the works of T.G. Masaryk, and imprisoned in Terezín.

    Released in 1945, he contracted tuberculosis shortly after and died in 1947.

  • Prague 3, day 75: Pitterova

    Originally published on Twitter on 7 July 2022.

    Pitterova was part of Chelčického (coming up in a few days) from 1885 until 1996, when it was given a name of its own.

    Přemysl Pitter was born in Smíchov in 1895. He studied typography in Leipzig in 1911-2, and, after his father’s death a year later, took over the family business, a printing house.

    While serving in WW1, he became a devout Christian. He deserted, and was sentenced to death for this, but escaped, and, in 1920, began to study at the Hus Faculty of Theology.

    In 1933, he opened the Milíč House / Milíčův dům, offering extracurricular activities for disadvantaged children. During this decade, with the threat of war looming, he dedicated himself to pacifist activities.

    After 1945, he organised ‘Operation Castles’, setting up sanatoriums in castles in to treat Jewish children returning from concentration camps.

    Indignant at the treatment of Germans who were placed in the camps after WWII, he extended his help to German children as well.

    After 1948, Pitter was persecuted, and was forced to resign as director of the Milíč House. He escaped to West Germany in 1951, from where he worked with the BBC and Radio Free Europe.

    He moved to Zurich in 1963, where he set up various Czechoslovak societies. He died there in 1976.

    He was named Righteous Among the Nations (Yad Vashem) by the Israeli government in 1976; Havel posthumously awarded him the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk in 1991.

    There was a 1996 ČT documentary about Pitter on YouTube, but it’s disappeared since July.

  • Prague 3, day 74: Ke Kapslovně

    Originally published on Twitter on 6 July 2022.

    Ke Kapslovně was built in 1975, but was called U Stadionu (Stadium) until 2008.

    Louis Sellier and Jean Maria Nicolaus Bellot founded a company, Sellier & Bellot, in Žižkov in 1825, which made cartridges for infantry, as well as matches (up to 60 million per year). The factory, operating from 1827, was called Kapslovna.

    Despite their very French names, Sellier and Bellot didn’t just rock up from abroad and set up shop – Sellier was a Czech-German of French origin, whereas Bellot was a Czech with French roots.

    The business grew and grew, which ultimately became incompatible with the growth of Žižkov as a residential area – so, in 1936, the factory moved to Vlasim near Tábor (where, in 2018, it had almost 1,600 employees and annual turnover of 4.3 billion CZK).

    A biathlon club – now a member of the Czech Biathlon Union, and with a nice website at https://kapslovna.cz – was opened in the factory’s location in 1975. Presumably this is also the ‘stadium’ that gave the street its first name.

    It organises the biggest biathlon event in Prague, the Žižkovské stuhy, and has an active social media presence on https://facebook.com/KlubBiatlonuKapslovna….

    Unsurprisingly, given its origins, Kapslovna also operates a shooting range.

  • Prague 3, day 73: Olšanská

    Originally published on Twitter on 5 July 2022.

    Olšanská was built in 1947.

    Olšany, a village located where the road now is, was built in 1306. It was named after ‘olše’, the alder tree. It’s hard to believe now, but there were several ponds and a stream here.

    The manors here had various owners, before being taken over by the people of Prague at the time of the Hussite riots, before undergoing multiple ownership changes yet again.

    In 1557, the land became the exclusive property of the Old Town of Prague. The court was destroyed by the Swedes during the Thirty Years’ War, and, after 1662, was attached to the Libeň court.

    Plague broke out in 1680; the city of Prague therefore established three cemeteries in Olšany: the Old Town cemetery, the New Town cemetery, and the Jewish cemetery.

    In 1788, the village district of Viničné Hory was created. Western Olšany became part of this, while the remainder became part of Strašnice. Olšany became part of Žižkov in 1875, and of Prague in 1922.

    There are plans to give Olšanská a revamp (article from a few days ago: https://idnes.cz/praha/zpravy/olsanska-architekti-studie-zmena-revitalizace-uzemi-praha-3.A220629_145206_praha-zpravy_baky…). It’s fair to say it could do with one.

  • Prague 3, day 72: U Nákladového nádraží

    Originally published on Twitter on 4 July 2022.

    U Nákladového nádraží was built in 1935 but not given a name until 1947.

    Nákladové nádraží Žižkov, or Žižkov freight railway station, is the biggest functionalist industrial building in Prague and a notorious Destroyer of Neighbourhoods (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/21/prague-3-day-70-na-viktorce/ and https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/22/prague-3-day-71-k-cervenemu-dvoru/).

    It also gets to have *two* tram stops named after it.

    The station opened in 1936, aiming to reduce the amount of freight train services provided in Prague city centre, and to provide warehousing.

    It ceased operation in 2002, with the exception of a container terminal that still functions.

    Since then, it’s hosted the odd art exhibition and festival (e.g. https://english.radio.cz/15th-designblok-arrives-1930s-freight-station-8542425…), but now a residential and administrative complex – with 11,000 new apartments – is in its early stages of development.

    There will be a metro station near here, too, as part of the D line.

    This year’s Landscape Festival (https://landscape-festival.cz and https://instagram.com/landscapefestival/…), which opened in June and runs until October, is dealing with the renovation of this and other train stations in Prague (ČT piece from a few days ago on https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/kultura/3511927-az-za-20-let-uvidime-jestli-o-tom-nekdo-uvazoval-landscape-festival-vyhlizi-premenu…).

    During the second lockdown, there was a vending machine in here which sold all kinds of fluorescent-looking and very un-European soft drinks. I will freely admit to being quite sad when it went away, though my teeth were probably relieved.

    Update, December 2024: the City of Prague finally agreed to purchase the freight station for about € 55 million, aiming to turn it into a cultural centre including offices, a school, apartments and a tram line.

  • Prague 3, day 71: K Červenému dvoru

    Originally published on Twitter on 3 July 2022.

    K Červenému dvoru was built in 1925.

    Červený dvůr (Red Court) is another local settlement that no longer exists.

    It’s recorded that there were vineyards here as early as the mid-15th century. By the mid-18th century, there was a farming estate called Direktorka.

    Direktorka was renamed Červený dvůr at some point (it’s not clear exactly when). It was located south of another farmstead, Vápenka, which we covered under https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/19/prague-3-day-10-na-vapence/.

    Viktorka (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/21/prague-3-day-70-na-viktorce/) may have been destroyed as Nákladové nádraží Žižkov was expanded, but Červený dvůr had even worse luck – it disappeared when the freight station was being constructed in the first place, and was completely gone by 1938.

  • Prague 3, day 70: Na Viktorce

    Originally published on Twitter on 2 July 2022.

    Na Viktorce was built in 1925.

    A farming settlement was founded here in 1873. From the end of the nineteenth century onwards, it was owned by one Viktor Kos (1858-1911), hence the name.

    Kos set up a brickyard here… which now has me playing a game of Whose Brickyard Is It Anyway, in which today’s post and yesterday’s post (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/21/prague-3-day-69-u-stare-cihelny/) are saying different things.

    After WWII, Žižkov freight railway station – i.e. Nákladové nádraží Žižkov – was expanded. As a result of this expansion, Viktorka ceased to exist.

  • Prague 3, day 69: U Staré cihelny

    Originally published on Twitter on 1 July 2022.

    U Staré cihelny was built in 1925.

    A cihelna is a brickyard, or a brick plant. So this street is ‘at the old brickyard’.

    This particular brickyard was possibly the one owned by Josef Vacek – see https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/20/prague-3-day-57-na-vackove/.

    Indeed, that brickyard is why the surrounding area was built up at all – the workers at Vacek’s factory needed housing, hence the creation of the neighbourhood (with a commute only slightly longer than the one most of us had during lockdown).

  • Prague 3, day 68: Ambrožova

    Originally published on Twitter on 30 June 2022.

    Ambrožova was built in 1932.

    Ambrož of Hradec, or Ambrož Hradecký, was pastor of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Hradec Králové, until he was banished from the town in 1419 for his Hussite beliefs.

    In 1420, he founded the Orebites, the Hussites’ followers in Eastern Bohemia.

    In the same year, they burned the Benedictine Monastery in Mnichovo Hradiště and fought in the Battle of Vyšehrad. Ambrož, meanwhile, regained HK.

    In 1423, the Orebites merged with the Sirotci (Orphans), the Hussite grouping formed by Jan Žižka. Ambrož opened HK up to Žižka, whose funeral was held there in 1424.

    Ambrož was thrown out of HK yet again in 1437 as the result of a pro-monarchy uprising. He took refuge in Kolín, where he died two years later.

  • Prague 3, day 67: Jilmová

    Originally published on Twitter on 29 June 2022.

    Jilmová was built in 1933.

    Did you really think we were done with the trees? This is one case where the Czech and English words are actually quite similar – a jilm is an elm.

    Elms have been in Czech territory for 12,000 years, i.e. even longer than Miloš Zeman.

    The elm has also given its name to Jilemnice, a town of 5,400 people in the Liberec Region.

    YouTube hits for ‘Noční můra na Jilmové’: zero. Where is your creativity, people?

    So let’s make this a bit more interesting by discussing the park that Jilmová forms the northern border of.

    It’s called Židovské pece, which translates as ‘Jewish furnaces’.

    The origin of the name isn’t certain. One theory is that Jews took refuge in caves here when they were expelled from Prague in the 1740s during Maria Theresa’s reign (Žižkov would not be part of Prague until 1922).

    Alternatively, the name has a link to the location’s status as an execution site (used until 1866).

    This was a desolate area until the 1950s. It was done up quite nicely a few years ago, but it’ll be a heck of a lot nicer when the huge amount of building work currently taking place to the south of it is over.

  • Prague 3, day 66: Hořanská

    Originally published on Twitter on 28 June 2022.

    Hořanská was built in 1961.

    Hořany is a village on the River Elbe in the Nymburk region, first mentioned in writing in 1282. It is probably so called because it’s located on a hill (hora).

    In 1420, the village was registered by Emperor Sigismund; from 1531-47, it was the property of the Old Town of Prague.

    In 1561, the village was purchased by Jaroslav Smiřický, who annexed it to the Černokostelec estate, of which it remained part until 1848.

    Hořany currently has a population of 171. There are some quite lovely panoramas of it on https://virtualtravel.cz/export/horany/.

  • Prague 3, day 65: Biskupcova

    Originally published on Twitter on 27 June 2022.

    Biskupcova was built in 1930.

    Mikuláš z Pelhřimova, or Nikolaus von Pelgrims, *or* Mikuláš Biskupec (1385-1459 approx.) was born in, yes, Pelhřimov, but started studying in Prague around 1406.

    Around this time, he became a devoted follower of Jan Hus. In 1415, he was ordained as a priest.

    In 1420, Mikuláš was elected as bishop of Tábor (hence the name ‘Biskupec’). Technically, however, he was only an ‘elder’, because big decisions remained with the Synod of the Priesthood.

    As a representative of Tábor, he was regularly involved in negotiations with theologians and the masters of Prague University.

    In 1444, the Land Assembly condemned the teachings of the Tábor theologians as erroneous. Biskupec refused to submit to this verdict.

    In 1452, Tábor capitulated to George of Poděbrady, and Mikuláš was imprisoned until he swore allegiance to Jan Rokycana (https://whatsinapraguestreetname.com/2022/11/19/prague-3-day-19-rokycanova/) is also in the neighbourhood).

    He did so, but was then sent to a dungeon at a castle in Poděbrady. He was seriously injured in an attempt to escape, and died shortly afterwards, probably in 1459.

  • Prague 3, day 64: Olgy Havlové

    Originally published on Twitter on 26 June 2022.

    Olgy Havlové was built in 2012.

    I normally try to get a photo where you can actually read the street sign, but isn’t this one awesome despite completely failing on that count?

    Olga Šplíchalová was born in Žižkov (specifically Vackov) in 1933.

    In the early 1950s, she joined an amateur theatre group, and, when at Cafe Slavia, met Václav Havel (photo from the Blesk archive).

    They married at Žižkov Town Hall in 1964. In the mid-1960s, they both worked at Divadlo Na zábradlí (https://nazabradli.cz/en/homepage/).

    We all know about Havel’s work as a dissident, but Olga was also a formidable figure. While he was in prison, she took over his samizdat responsibilities. She also participated in and organised Charter 77 activities and meetings (she signed in 1982).

    Havel’s letters to Olga, written when he was in prison from May 1979 to March 1983, are collected in ‘Letters to Olga’.

    In 1987, she co-founded Originální Videojournal, a video news magazine documenting dissident activities in Czechoslovakia.

    Here’s the episode documenting the protests on Škroupovo náměstí in December 1988.

    As First Lady from 1990, she focused on charitable activities, setting up the Olga Havel Foundation in 1992. You can find out about their work on https://vdv.cz/en/.

    She died of cancer in January 1996, with an outpouring of grief from the nation.

    She is buried in the Havel family tomb in Vinohrady Cemetery.

    A 2014 documentary, titled ‘Olga’, can be viewed on https://aerovod.cz/katalog/olga (in Czech; payment required, but this Aero-Světozor-Bio-Oko website is making me want to not go out for a few months).

    Elsewhere, there is a memorial plaque to her on Senovážné náměstí and a grammar school named after her in Ostrava-Poruba.

    A forest park bearing her name is currently being built in Prague 10: http://atelierprojektor.cz/lesopark-olgy-havlove/

  • Prague 3, day 63: Rixdorfská

    Originally published on Twitter on 25 June 2022.

    Rixdorfská was built in a very recent 2012.

    Český Rixdorf, or Böhmisch-Rixdorf, was a community founded by Protestant refugees from Bohemia in 1737. It’s located in what is now the Neukölln district of Berlin.

    Like other Bohemian Protestants, these exiles left the country as they were being increasingly prosecuted against after the Battle of Bílá Hora in 1620.

    Based on the chronology, these departures were still happening a century on.

    Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia suggested that these exiles move to Rixdorf, which was divided into two (German Rixdorf and Bohemian Rixdorf).

    Bohemian/Český Rixdorf even had a ‘Malá ulička’ until 1909 (it’s now the Kirchgasse).

    Approximately a quarter of the houses in Rixdorf were destroyed in a fire in 1849.

    Both Rixdorfs were merged into a new municipality in 1873, which was renamed Neukölln in 1912.

    The name change was an attempt to remove the district’s reputation as a location for… ‘frivolous entertainment’, let’s call it.

    Neukölln became part of Berlin in 1920. You may also recognise its (deliberately misspelt) name from this:

    I’ve walked this street many a time, and have stayed (and partied) in Neukölln more than once, and never knew about any of this.

    You’ll have noticed that not every single street name story is thrilling. But when they’re like this one, they’re *such* a joy to write about.

  • Prague 3, day 62: Plavínová

    Originally published on Twitter on 24 June 2022.

    Plavínová was built in 1998 (making it newest street yet, but only until tomorrow).

    A plavín štítnatý, or plavín leknínovitý, or Nymphoides peltata, has its fair share of names in English too: fringed water lily, yellow floating heart, floating heart, water fringe or entire marshwort.

    It’s a perennial that grows in stagnant or gently flowing waters. In the Czech Republic, it’s gradually disappearing, and is only found in the south and east of the country.

    Hence its status as an endangered species. If you’re the sort of person who enjoys blame, then feel free to cast a judgemental glance at fish farmers, carps, ducks and swans.