Hybernská Street: A Fascinating History

In January 2023, we left our founding campus at Polská street in Vinohrady and moved to the City Centre Campus in Hybernská street. Hybernská street has a significant history as it was the main thoroughfare into Prague from the royal town of Kutná Hora.

Kutná Hora

Centuries ago, Kutná Hora was the second most important town after the royal City of Prague. Silver had been discovered in the late 10th century, followed by a mining boom which over time brought much wealth to the town and elevated the Czech kingdom to new levels of power within Europe. The town also became the seat of the central mint and the financial centre for the Czech lands.

The Main Thoroughfare

Because this street connected Prague with the royal town of Kutná Hora, it was known in mediaeval times simply as Horská. An alternative name, Dlážděná, is a reminder that it was also one of the first paved streets in the city.

In 1355, Charles IV allowed monks from the Order of Saint Ambrose to settle at the western end of the street, opposite where the Powder Gate would eventually be built, this led the street to be known for a period of time as Svatoambrožská. In 1629 this monastery passed into the hands of Franciscan monks from Ireland who, amongst other innovations, cultivated the first potatoes in Bohemia.

The Latin name for Ireland is Hibernia; so, when the Franciscans returned to Ireland in 1786 following the limiting of Catholic power by the emperor Joseph II, the street became known as Hybernská (Irish street). The monastery was remodelled several times, and is now a musical theatre, also known as the Hibernia.

Hybernská Centrum

The City Centre Campus is within the Hybernská Centrum building which was built between 1928 and 1932 by the architect Pavel Moravec (1891-1979). During the golden age of Czechoslovakia’s First Republic, Moravec, along with his partner Tomáš Pražák (1890-1947) was responsible for several other modernist buildings in Prague, including the Hasičský dům (Fire Brigade House, fig 2) close to PCU’s founding campus in Vinohrady, and a hotel (today the Hotel Harmony) on the corner of Biskupská, near PCU Bishop’s Court campus. Moravec and Pražák went on to build a number of private villas built in the so-called ‘national style’ in the 1930s in the upmarket district of Bubeneč, Prague 6.

Hybernská Centrum originally housed a hotel, as well as residential and office spaces. The rooms overlooking Hybernská street on the first floor and to the right of the reception once housed a theatre cafe with a stage. You can still see the stage’s crown mouldings in PCU’s Meeting Room 101, underneath of which many performances would have taken place.

Written in collaboration with Alex Went, author of The Prague Vitruvius.