Top 5 Sights of Kafka's Prague

Follow in the footsteps of Prague's most famous resident. Go on a 'Kafkaesque' tour of the Czech Republic's capital city.

As a driver specialising in Prague airport transfers, I've come to know a fair bit about the history of the city – especially when it comes to its famous residents! And while Prague has been home to numerous writers, scientists, musicians and politicians, none have left their mark on the city quite like Franz Kafka.

Renowned as one of the most influential and daring writers of the 20th century, Franz Kafka was born and raised in Prague. He died young, but left behind a literary legacy that includes 'The Trial', 'The Castle', and the famous short story 'Metamorphosis'. His style was so distinctive that it even gave rise to the term 'Kafkaesque' to describe a baffling situation that involves a maddening battle with bureaucracy. (Let me tell you, running Prague airport transfers is sometimes very Kafkaesque!)

If you are interested in following the trail of Franz Kafka, here are five of the sights you should check out on your visit to Prague.

The Jewish Quarter

No visit to Prague should miss out on the famous Jewish Quarter, especially considering its significance to Kakfa. This is where he lived, and it was also the setting for a great number of his short stories. Grab a copy of his short stories and go on a wander through the Jewish Quarter, and see how many locations you can find!

The Kafka Monument

It took a long time for Kafka to get his own monument, but he now has one that is truly fitting to his life and works. Located next to the Spanish Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter, it's a delightfully strange bit of art, depicting a tiny Kafka sitting on top of a headless man. What it means is anyone's guess, though one suspects that Kafka would have approved of the bafflement it causes...

The Kafka Museum

This is a museum with a twist. It contains many of the things you'd expect from a Kafka museum (letters, first editions and a well stocked gift shop), but it also contains a number of audiovisual elements to get you unsettled and in the right mood for Kafka, and there are some particularly fascinating displays charting the close links between the city of Prague and Kafka's work.

The Cafe Louvre

Not only is this one of the finest and friendliest cafes in Prague, it was also a regular haunt of Franz Kafka (along with Albert Einstein and several other luminaries.) The perfect place to grab a coffee and read a few pages of Kafka before heading out on to the trail of the writer once again.

Kafka's Grave

This is the natural last stop on the Kafka tour. He suffered from ill health all of his life, and finally succumbed to tuberculosis in 1924, when he was only 40. If you want to pay your respects to the great writer, head over to his grave in the New Jewish Cemetery.

These are the highlights that I recommend, but in truth, Kafka is everywhere in Prague – if ever a city was labyrinthine and strange enough to be called Kafkaesque, it was certainly this one!