Walk with Kafka in Prague

The House of Kafka's Birth

Franz Kafka Square 3, Old Town

The house in which Franz Kafka was born, a simple, two story house with flats on the northeast side of the Old Town Square, stood at the edge of the then still existing Prague ghetto. Although the location was central, the living conditions in the house on the corner of the Maisel Street and the Carp Street were more on the modest side. The house had been built in the first half of the 18th century according to planes by the Czech architect, František Maximilián Kaňka. Erected on the stone foundation of Romanic buildings, it was meant to serve as a private precinct for the prelates of the Benedictine monks, who had their convent church in the neighboring St Nicholas' Church. The complex of cloister-buildings was sealed off from the adjacent ghetto. For a long time the monks were unable to use the building. When Emperor Joseph II ordered the dissolution of the cloister in 1785 the structre was bought by the city and used at first as an archive and storage place, from 1816 on also as a theater, and finally as a house for living quarters.

Of the original house there remained only the portal which was integrated into the new edifice Here on July 3, 1883, Franz Kafka was born, the first of six children of the married couple Hermann and Julie Kafka. In May 1885 the parents moved on to Wenceslas Square No.56. In 1897 thou house, which had been damaged in fire, was torn down; a neo-baroque structure took its place. Of the original house there remained only the portal which was integrated into the new edifice. Since 1965 a bronze memorial bust has been mounted on one of the outside walls, fashioned by the Czech sculptor Karel Hladík. A small exhibition on the ground floor of the house is dedicated to the famous writer who was born there.