kafka and prague

The Praha Building: Art Nouveau in New Town


The Praha (Prague) Building is located on Narodni Trida, a street about 5-10 minutes walk south of Old Town Square. Kafka would have spent time there because of the German Students Club (now a parking lot) and, later, because of The Louvre, a favorite cafe of his.

The building presented here, also on Narodni Trida, has no specific connection with Kafka, except thematically.  The building's beautiful art nouveau facade served as something of a billboard for the Praha insurance firm, as we learn, going from top to bottom, that "Praha" ... (middle) pojistuje ... (bottom, left to right) život, kapital, obchod, veno or, in English, "Praha ... insures ... life, capital, business, dowries."  We include it here because it serves to highlight an irony of Kafka's life and literature: that Kafka, a writer who more than any other worked constantly to create uncertainty, spent his life working in an industry that attempted to relieve uncertainty.