Brno’s New Main Train Station to be Named Šalingrad

The unusual winner, announced yesterday, is a derivation of a term English speakers are unlikely to be familiar with. Or most who don’t live in Brno.

Brno-Šalingrad, which narrowly beat out Brno-Hlavní nádraží (Brno Main Station), topped the poll and will be submitted by city officials to the Czech Railway authority, who have final approval regarding the new name.

Šalingrad, not to be confused with the Russian city Stalingrad, is a play on the term šalina, a unusual Czech word that has Brno-specific roots and usage.

The term dates back to the turn of the 20th century, when the city had a large German-speaking population; the German term ‘Elektrische Linie’ was eventually adopted into local Czech lingo as ‘šalina’.

While Brno Main Station came in second in the poll, most of the other names were satirical, and included Jára Cimrman Train Station (after the fictitious Czech character), Vienna-North, and Prague-Country.

These were the top 10 finalists:

While the name may have already been decided, work on Brno’s new train station, which will see a massive overhaul of the current version in the same location, has yet to commence.

The project is expected to take six years to complete, at a price tag of 50 billion CZK.