Holešovice
From Prague-wiki
Holešovice is a cadastral district in the north of Prague. In the past it was a heavily industrial suburb; today it is home to the main site of the Prague's National Gallery, the Veletržní palác, and one of the largest railway stations in Prague, Nádraží Holešovice.
The name of Holešovice is first mentioned in historical records in 1228 as royal property. Up to the 16th century this farming hamlet did not develop in any way and the number of farms there remained the same. Only in the 18th century did the farms start to decline and from the mid-19th century Holesovice was gradually transformed into a city suburb. In 1850 Holešovice was merged with Bubny into a single Prague urban district, although the two parts continued to develop in relative independence of each other. From the end of the 19th century Bubny was directly connected with Prague by a chain bridge and served mainly as a district of residential apartment blocks, while Holešovice concentrated more on the building factories and became a peripheral industrial district.
In 1884 Holešvice-Bubny was incorporated into the Royal Capital City of Prague as its seventh district (after the Old Town, the New Town, the Lesser Town, Hradčany, Josefov and Vyšehrad). Immediately after this time the district underwent rapid growth: While in 1857 there were a mere 110 houses with 1,200 inhabitants, at the beginning of the 20th century there were already 780 houses, and a population of 30,000. In 1914 a new Neo-Gothic church of Saint Anthony of Padua on Strossmayerovo náměstí was consecrated.
