Streets of Prague district Nusle were inspired by names of prince Oldřich and other monarchs from Přemyslid dynasty. The aim of project Oldřiška and upcoming project Jaromírka (reconstruction and new apartment building of house on Jaromírova street) is to metaphorically connect eventful fates of two brothers and Přemyslid princes – Oldřich and Jaromír. Siblings’ relationship wasn’t very tender – battling over a Czech throne, Oldřich had his brother blinded and sterilized. These events were also gently transformed into visual presentation of Oldřiška and Jaromírka developer projects.
Nusle has its own rich history. The first written evidence mentioning the district comes from the 11th century where it is referred to as a village, having different names as Neosvetly, Nostuly, Nusly or Neosvitly. The district used to be even an independent city between 1898 -1921. Its common history with the city of Prague has been written since 1.1. 1922.
Many interesting buildings can be found in Nusle, plenty of which are linked with famous celebrities and events. For example between Nusle beer brewery and Folimanka park a traditional shoemakers’ after-easter celebration used to take place, so called “Fidlovačka”, which was also performed in eponymous theater play of J. K. Tyl.
Close to Nusle’s stairs is a villa Osvěta where Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, first Czech president, moved to in 1884 with his family. His son Jan, famous Czech diplomat and politician was born here two years later.
Sokol Nusle had first gymnasium here in 1888 already and one of its members was an Olympic winner Bedřich Šupčík. This gymnast won the first ever golden medal for newly established Czechoslovak Republic in rope climbing without legs at 1924 Paris Summer Olympics.
Tylovo theatre, nowadays known as “Na Fidlovačce”, was built here in 1920.
The second oldest cinema in Prague was run in the building of the old post office – “Bouček” cinema – same space is used by Theater witout Borders from year 2012.
Out of the famous residents of Nusle we have to mention Czech actor Rudolf Hrušínský who lived in his house on Pod Vilami Street between 1945-94. His son Rudolf Hrušínský Jr. lives here today and runs nearby “Na Jezerce” Theatre. This theatre building was used for the first experimental color broadcast of Czechoslovak television and during The Velvet Revolution was rented as a broadcasting studio by more than 60 TV teams from all around the world.
Čiklova Street formerly named Pod Terebkou has an eventful past. One of the apartments here held an illegal transmitter during the era of the Protectorate. Josef Mašín was arrested here under dramatic circumstances in 1941. However arrested he managed to “entertain” the Gestapo long enough to help his colleagues Vaclav Moravek and Frantisek Peltan to escape through window on a thin steel cable that was used as a transmitter earthing. The street was named after Orthodox priest Václav Čikla after the War –he was helping the hiding paratroopers after Reinhard Heydrich assassination, paying with his life himself.
Cartoon movies were created in Novak Brothers Ateliers on the same street between 1958 – 1983. “Potkali se u Kolína”,” Kocour Mikeš” or “Pat a Mat” were shot here for example. Several famous artistic personalities came across here in the lead with Josef Klug and Břetislav Pojar.
Amongst other famous people, Czech singer Jiri Schellinger grew up on Čestmírova Street. Táborská Street was a home to Czech actor Martin Růžek.
Undoubtedly the most outstanding construction here is the Nusle Bridge. Building a bridge over the Nusle Valley had already been considered during the First Republic. Planning the construction of a bridge for vehicular traffic with a tube for a tram-car route began during the 1960s. A block of seventeen buildings was demolished in 1967. Footage from it can be seen in a Zdeněk Podskalský movie “Ta naše písnička česká”. A year later decision was made to make a metro go through a bridge’s tube instead of a tram. The construction was finished in year 1973. The bridge spans the valley with an average height of 42.5 m and is 485 m long and 26.5 m wide. It got the Construction of the century award in a category of Transportation constructions in year 2000.