Specific atmosphere of Žižkov

From its very beginning, Žižkov has been built as working class quarter for Prague´s poor, but not the rubble. Due to this fact a specific district was formed which was living its own life and followed its own rules. Let´s return back and smell the scient of old Žižkov.

All about: Prague´s Žižkov

Žižkov Republic:
Žižkov Republic or if you like, a city within a city or a state within a state, actually used to be a territory covering several tens of square kilometres. Its beginning was in Příběnická street above Bulhar and it stretched across „Žižkaperk“ towards náměstí Jiřího z Poděbrad (Jiří z Poděbrad square) and far behind „Olšan“. The time, the changes of regimes, the age completely wiped out the atmosphere which was present here still long after WW2.

Television was still a distant future, radio was a hot trend available only for select ones. Not many spent time sitting over books here and as soon as the temperature raised the streets were full of life. Only few people stayed in the narrow and sometimes quite dark appartments with a cheap bulb. There were many pubs around. Although they were busy all the time, many of the drinking fellows were putting their pints on the window sills in the groundfloor or on the house stairs and they enjoyed smoking and gossipping here. It was simply common for Žižkov to live in the streets.Cigárka (cigarettes) were rolled with help of rolling papers and cheap tabacco. Pepíci (Joes) held them sklifully in their mouth corners or sticked them to the lower lip, where they were reliably moving even during vivid conversation. Dandies who nonchalantly pulled out their snuffboxes with bought cigarettes liked to clap them noisily while closing. But they had to be homeboys othervise they were suspicious and they would be likely to get beaten.

All about: Prague 3 Monuments

The lovers of „čertovy obrázky“ (the devil´s picture books, i.e. playing cards) brought crates from the yards and they were playing Mariage, „darda“ or „cvik“ until dusk. Almost in every second street someone from the older generation was playing the helikon bass accordion for his and other people´s enjoyment. Someone always gott them a beer or two. Women were discussing their matters in the yards or house galleries or in the narrow streets simply window-to-window. Boys were kicking their hadráky (rag balls), balls from pieces of rags stuffed and stitched up in old tights. Every little ground was occupied by marble-players. Those who had tin or rainbow marbles were the kings. There were many games, but they were played also anywhere else. Boys fought a lot, too. With one another, with gangs from other streets or with the strangers from other districts. Then they all got connected. You could see more sling-shots than anywhere else but they shot with „bábrlata“ – pieces of paper, not with stones. Breaking a window stood for proper „vix“ (whipping) at home because it was an extra expense. Girls were playing „panáky“ (hopscotch), made tricks with skipping ropes or they created complicated hairstyles to each other.

Motto: Dvacetikorůna, néni tak veliká, aby porazíla Žižkovskýho Pepíka…(Twenty-crown-coin is not that big to knock down Joe from Žižkov..)

Žižkovský Pepík (Joe from Žižkov):
Native-born Žižkov citizens were easy to indentify according to their prolonged intonation. Teachers and parents who disliked it often corrected them saying „do not sing“. You could not hear people speak this way anywhere else in Prague but as soon as you „entered their land“ you could hear the singing on every corner. „Cápkové“, i.e. contemporary teenagers, also had specific pace and moves. A sort of „rowdy“. Some of them remained the same despite their higher age and if they behaved this way somewhere else they were immediatelly labelled with disdain as „someone from Žižkov. Žižkov was a working-class district but there was of course a number of various small handicrafts there, too. Social pressures during various crises when poor were getting even poorer introduced rougher atmosphere. Still nobody had to be worried to walk in the street like in some places these days. Tiny disagreements were solved directly and people visited authorities or police very seldom. There was a tension during frequent dance parties, especially if „ometáci“ (dudes) from other districts arrived. Žižkov boys were extra sensitive to see some strangers around „their girls“. Those who still dared were also no „houskové or chabrusové“ (cowards) so sometimes it was pretty hot around.

„Attending voilin classes“ was never typical for Žižkov, so still in the 1950s, although it was „unsocialistic“, it was easier here than anywhere else to get beaten („dostat na budku)“. But as the people started to do better (Ale jak se lidé, alespoň společensky, začali mít lépe the atmosphere of old Žižkov slowly started to disappear and these days, nobody would recognize the native Žižkov citizen anymore.

Karel Pokorný

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