Čop Street ( sl, Čopova ulica) is a major

pedestrian A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In modern times, the term usually refers to someone walking on a road or pavement, but this was not the case historically. The meaning of pedestrian is displayed with ...

thoroughfare in the center of

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the a ...

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...

and regarded as the capital's central

promenade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cle ...

Location

The street leads from the Main Post Office () at

Slovene Street Slovene or Slovenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Slovenia, a country in Central Europe * Slovene language, a South Slavic language mainly spoken in Slovenia * Slovenes, an ethno-linguistic group mainly living in Slovenia * Sl ...

() to Prešeren Square ().

History

Until the late 19th century, the street was known as Elephant Street () in memory of an

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...

present in the city in the 16th century. A gift from the

Ottoman sultan The sultans of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı padişahları), who were all members of the Ottoman dynasty (House of Osman), ruled over the transcontinental empire from its perceived inception in 1299 to its dissolution in 1922. At its he ...

, the animal had been traveling in the entourage of Emperor Maximilian II on his way back from Spain to Germany, and had been stabled at what is now the upper part of the street in 1550, where the

Slon Hotel Slon may refer to: *Elephant in many Slavic languages *Slon, a village in Cerașu Commune, Prahova County, Romania *Slon.ru, a Russian magazine *Russian abbreviation of the Solovki prison camp (Соловецкий лагерь особого на ...

now stands. In 1892, the name of the street was changed to Prešeren Street (). In 1949, it was renamed Čop Street after Matija Čop, an early 19th-century literary figure and close friend of the Slovene

Romantic poet Romantic poetry is the poetry of the Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. It involved a reaction against prevailing Enlightenment ideas of the 18th ...

France Prešeren France Prešeren () (2 or 3 December 1800 – 8 February 1849) was a 19th-century Romantic Slovene poet whose poems have been translated into many languages.

.Kopriva, Silvester. 1989. ''Ljubljana skozi čas: ob latinskih in slovenskih napisih in zapisih''. Ljubljana: Borec, p. 149

References

External links

* Streets in Ljubljana Shopping districts and streets Pedestrian malls Center District, Ljubljana {{slovenia-stub