Where Štvanice Got Its Name

The island is called Štvanice — the Baiting — because in the eighteenth century animals were baited here in a wooden amphitheatre on the upper half: wolves, bears, bulls and stags set upon by dogs. Emperor Francis I banned the entertainment in 1802. In the flood of 1784 two bears and a stag were drowned here. In the sixteenth century there was shooting at the bird here, and a powder magazine as well, moved here from the Powder Tower, which Joseph II did away with.