Golden Lane - Prague's historic heritage

My children certainly knew their grandparents spoke Czech (and Hungarian) at work in Australia, and they understood that their father spent his young years in Prague. But they had never seen a photo or painting of the Prague city-scape. After the government changed in 1990, my mother in law wanted to see her beloved homeland one last time, before she was too old to travel. So we all went, in 1993!

Within Hradcany/Prague Castle, and almost hidden beneath the castle's massive outer walls, lies a narrow street of uneven but colourful little timber houses. The 1 metre wide lane was built when an outer fortified wall was added to the northern part of Prague Castle, in the 1560s.

At this early stage, the 24 small houses were built by the Emperor Rudolph II for his castle guards or marksmen. Thus the space became known as Archery Lane. Rudolph was just another Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor from 1576–1612, but he had two unique qualities. Firstly he was the only Habsburg ruler to make Prague his permanent home and secondly he was a student of occult learning which helped promote a passion for state-funded science.

Now called Golden Lane, the original small houses with colourful facades are still built directly into the arch­es of the defensive castle walls. But if Golden refers to artisans who moved into the lane, what happened to the castle guards? When did they leave the area? Because of Emperor Rudolf’s passion for science, I can quite believe that the houses was were given instead to goldsmiths, and to alchemists who were asked to create gold out of base metals. 

Golden Lane, Prague

So until the C19th, there were 24 wooden dwellings along the lane. But unfortunately by then the houses on one side of the road had been condemned as unhygienic slums and were knocked down. Houses on the other side were left intact.

Can we use the word yuppified for Prague? Before WW1, Golden Lane had certainly been made more romantic and had become the preferred address of some of Prague’s members of the arts community. The most prominent of these was Franz Kafka, who lived in a house owned by his sister Ottla during WWI. The poet Jaros­lav Seifert, the winner of a much later Nobel Prize for Literature, also lived on the street as a young man in the 1930s.

After WW2, in 1952, the Czech government took responsib­ility for this historic site. From 1952 to 1955, the hous­es were properly restored and became souvenir shops or small museums and galleries. The facades were repainted, giving the street today’s brightly coloured appear­ance. [I'd like to know if these bright colours are historically accurate?]

Since then, some of the houses seemed to be collapsing. So Golden Lane was again renovated and was reopened to the public in June 2011. Now 7 houses are used for commercial purposes, while the other 9 offer historical exhibitions on Prague life in times gone by.

House #12 was home of amateur cinematographer and film historian Josef Kazda. The front room is a small cinema and old black and white films show Prague before WW2. Spools and canisters of film are stacked up the narrow staircase and film posters adorn the walls. House #13 is the residence of a Artillerymen-castle guard, including his uniforms and weapons. House #15 shows a goldsmith’s home and workshop, complete with his tools and working gear. House #22 was the sister’s house where Franz Kafka lived in 1916/17 and wrote some of his short stories. Her residence was presumably Kafka’s inspiration for his later book The Castle. House #27 shows a herbalist’s practice. One of his rooms was used as a doctor’s office and pharmacy, with shelves of bottles of botanical extracts on display.

Interior of a craftsman's home in Golden Lane

Most of the rooms were based on real people who lived here, disp­lay­ing behind glass panels how owners decorated their houses with furnishings, wall stencils and embroidery. Thankfully Golden Lane was inscribed into the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1992.

At the end of the Golden Lane tour, visitors are encouraged to visit the round Daliborka Tower at the end of the street. One should avoid the torture instruments and instead climb to the top for wonderful views of Prague and its outstanding buildings. My mother in law's great joy was seeing her beloved suburb Josefov from the tower. She passed away the very next year.