Jižní Město

Jižní Město (Czech pronunciation: [ˈjɪʒɲiː ˈmɲɛsto], colloquially Jižňák or Jižák and abbreviated JM) is a panel housing estate situated in an open area in the southeast of Prague. Its name translates from Czech to English as "South City" or "South Town". Home to most of the 80,000 inhabitants of the municipal district Prague 11, part of the Prague 4 administrative district, it is the largest housing estate in the Czech Republic. Large parts of Chodov and Háje, the two districts which belong to Prague 11, are part of Jižní Město. The natural areas Kunratický Les and Hostivař Park Forest border the estate, on the west and east sides respectively. The D1 highway connecting Prague to Brno runs through the estate.

The construction of the housing estate began as an extension to some new buildings constructed in Pankrác and Kačerov. The housing built was still not enough to satisfy the huge volume of workers, so at the beginning of the 1970s construction began on further blocks in an empty meadow between Chodov and Háje. This area, which makes up the largest part of the housing estate, was known as Sídliště Jižní Město I (Sídliště is the Czech word for an agglomeration of panel buildings). At the time when the flats began to be available to the Czechoslovak people, the construction was still not entirely finished, a reality documented in Věra Chytilová's 1979 documentary film Panelstory, which is set in Sídliště JM I during its teething stages. The situation slowly improved throughout the 1970s. The section of the D1 highway between Prague and Mirošovice opened on schedule in 1971, and energy supplies were successfully installed in time.

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