Standing right up against the inside of the castle walls are the dimunitive houses of Golden Lane, built to house the castle guards at the end of the 16th century, later occupied by, among others, goldsmiths and...Franz Kafka. Kafka didn't actually live here; instead he rented and utilized the house at 22 Golden Lane in 1916-17 so that he could have a quiet place to write in the evenings after work.

It is now almost inconceivable that somebody of modest means could have ever rented out one of these quaint little houses, much less that they would have done so because they were looking for a quiet place to write. As can be seen in these pictures, Golden Lane can be a busy place in an age of hyper-tourism, in spite of the fact that one must buy a ticket -- and not an inexpensive one -- simply to walk along it.