Golden Lane, Prague Castle

This is a perfect start of a small walking route through the castle of Prague. Everybody has seen the pictures on the postcards, but context is most of the time missing. That is why we start at the Golden Lane

These fairytale cottages squeezed against the castle wall were built around 1500 for the 24 sharpshooters who guarded the gates. Space was tight, so they built directly into the fortification arches, using stone, mud, and wood. The windows only face the front, because the emperor strictly forbade any back windows overlooking his private deer hunting grounds.

When the guards eventually moved out, goldsmiths moved in during the 1600s, and that is where the name actually comes from. Goldsmith Lane. Not from alchemists, despite what the legend says. No alchemist ever lived here.

By the 1800s the lane had fallen into decay, sheltering beggars and criminals, until artists began to discover it. Franz Kafka rented house number 22 from late 1916 into early 1917. He would come here after a full day of work, sit in that impossibly small space, and write the stories that became A Country Doctor. He loved it precisely because it was cramped and quiet.

House number 14 belonged to Matylda Průšová, a fortune teller who predicted the fall of the Third Reich through tarot cards. The Gestapo executed her for it.

People lived here until the end of World War II. The cheerful colors you see today were added in 1955, which means the lane's most photogenic feature is also its most recent one.