Žižkov, Prague

Žižkov is a Prague district, spread across the slopes beyond the old city. It takes its name from Jan Žižka, the Hussite military leader whose army defeated Emperor Sigismund’s forces at Vítkov in fourteen twenty. The close-set residential streets come from a rapid building boom after the city walls ceased to restrain Prague’s growth.

Affordable land drew development, and courtyard-access apartments became a defining local form. The population then surged from a small settlement into a substantial town within a short span. Žižkov gained town status in eighteen eighty-one and became part of Prague in nineteen twenty-two.

Writers Jaroslav Hašek and Franta Sauer worked here, while Nobel laureate Jaroslav Seifert was born here and spent much of his life in the district. Today, restored older houses share these streets with cafés, restaurants, and a famously dense pub culture.