Čop Street

Čop Street
	Čop Street, as seen from the Prešeren Statue
Native name	Čopova ulica Error {{native name checker}}: parameter value is malformed (help)
Former name(s)	Elephant Street (Slonova ulica) ; Prešeren Street (Prešernova ulica)
Length	205 m (673 ft)
Location	Center District, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Coordinates	46°03′07″N 14°30′16″E / 46.05191°N 14.50448°E
West end	Slovene Street (Slovenska cesta)
East end	Prešeren Square (Prešernov trg)

Čop Street (Slovene: Čopova ulica) is a major pedestrian thoroughfare in the center of Ljubljana, Slovenia and regarded as the capital's central promenade.

Location

The street leads from the Main Post Office ([Glavna pošta] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) at Slovene Street ([Slovenska cesta] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) to Prešeren Square ([Prešernov trg] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)).

History

Until the late 19th century, the street was known as Elephant Street ([Slonova ulica] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) in memory of the first elephant present in the city since Roman times. A gift from the Ottoman sultan, 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 now stands.

In 1892, the name of the street was changed to Prešeren Street ([Prešernova ulica] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)). In 1949, it was renamed Čop Street after Matija Čop, an early 19th-century literary figure and close friend of the Slovene Romantic poet France Prešeren.^[1]