Dukelských hrdinů 904/44

The name of this street honours the heroes of the Battle of Dukla Pass (1944), for the Czechoslovak army one of the bloodiest engagements of the Second World War.

Forty years earlier, when the street was still known as Bělského třída (after Václav Bělský, mayor of Prague at the end of the 19th century) a trio of handsome art nouveau apartments by the architect František Stárek was erected, each beautifully decorated with a figure from Czech history.

They include Vlasta, chambermaid to queen Libuše; Herman of Bubeň, who fought against the Turks in the 1500s; and George of Poděbrady, Protestant King of Bohemia from 1458 to 1471 (pictured here). Above him, the Hussite banner proclaims ‘The Truth of God will prevail’, the longer Latin version of the motto which in Czech reads simply ‘Pravda vítězí’.