Long-time London resident and avid museum and theatre-goer. I started this blog in 2014, and got serious about it in 2020 when I realised how much I missed arts and culture during lockdowns. I go to a lot more events than anyone would think is sensible, and love sharing my thoughts in the forms of reviews, the occasional thought piece, and travel recommendations when I leave my London HQ.
A very brief visit to Prague gives me a chance to try out a gamified way to explore the city. With Questo app in hand we take a look at sites linked to Franz Kafka, woven together by a story with roots in The Metamorphosis.
A Stroll Around Prague
Today’s experiment in tourism came about quite accidentally. I recently had an opportunity to spend a couple of days in Prague. Sightseeing was not an objective of the trip, I had other business to accomplish. But if there are two consistent things about me they are: a) I am an early riser and b) if I have spare time in a new city it’s almost impossible to stop me getting out and exploring.
So the question was not whether I was going to have a look around the Old Town of Prague, but whether there was anything interesting I could do with my time. I was up and about before any cultural institutions were open. And this isn’t my first trip to this marvellous city so I had already covered places like the Národní Galerie, Prague Castle, Kafka Museum and so on. So I decided it might be nice to take advantage of the late summer weather, and do a self-guided walking tour. Then I decided more specifically that it might be nice to do one themed around Franz Kafka.
I’m going to level with you, readers. I did my best to find a nice website or PDF of a walk I could do for free. I’m not against paying for things, it’s just nice when I don’t need to. In this case, however, I was only coming up with paid guided tours, rather than the sort of self-led thing you can do at the crack of dawn. Until, that is, I came across a link to something on Questo. What is that, you ask? Read on, for I shall tell you!
The Gamification Of Tourism
So, Questo. This was the first I’d heard of it. I checked out their website, and discovered Questo is a “role-playing thematic game where you walk around the city solving puzzles in your surroundings to discover new places and their fun history”. Sounds intriguing! Essentially the way it works is that you download an app, and purchase credits you can redeem against specific themed walks. These are put together by individual creators, presumably on their local areas. If the one I did was anything to go by, they combine facts about the city with a narrative that introduces a game element, and questions to solve as you make your way between different sites. Questo uses GPS so once you have downloaded your walk it will come to life as you approach the starting point, and you take it from there.
The walk I had chosen was Kafka-themed, courtesy of Lucy Tours. I stopped at a lot of sites related to his life in Prague. The story and game element was a riff on The Metamorphosis: I won’t reveal too much in case you ever want to try it for yourself. But at different stops there were quiz questions to answer about your surroundings before you’re able to move on. You can ‘buy’ hints using experience points, or skip a question entirely if you’re really stuck. You can also pause play, which was useful for me because I couldn’t get the whole thing done in one morning.
This gamification of tourism is interesting. I wonder if it’s part of a trend along with escape rooms and scavenger hunts? On the one hand it could feel like a bit of a dumbing down of a process of learning and exploring. But on the other hand it’s harmless, a good entry point into exploring a place, and a different lens through which to see a city. I saw places I hadn’t come across in my previous two visits to Prague. A lot of the walks on Questo also seem geared towards families, which makes sense.
But anyway, enough of me pontificating about heritage and tourism, let’s take a look at the city as I explored it with Questo.
Franz Kafka’s Prague: Franz Kafka Memorial To Dům U Minuty
Phone in hand, this is where we start our walk. Would you know just from looking at it that this is a Franz Kafka Memorial? And yet it is, by Jaroslav Róna. It depicts a man (Kafka?) riding on an empty suit of clothes, and is inspired by his short story Description of a Struggle. To update you on how I was doing with the game aspect of my walk, I already needed a clue to solve the very first question…Next door to the statue is the Church of the Holy Spirit, with a history stretching back to the 14th Century.And just a little bit further on is the Spanish Synagogue. This is much more recent than the nearby church, dating to 1868. Prague’s Jewish community, of which Kafka was of course a member, dates back continuously to at least the 10th Century. At times they faced pogroms and expulsions, at others periods of peace and prosperity. The city’s Jewish Quarter was mostly demolished and rebuilt in Art Nouveau style circa 1900. We will see more synagogues and Jewish community buildings a bit later on.The shopping streets around this area are rather impressive.And a little further on we cross the Old Town Square for the first time. In the background is Prague’s City Hall, which we will see in more detail shortly. The city was so peaceful at this early hour: just me, the street cleaners and a few other earlybirds.This is our next Questo stopping point: Dům U Minuty. The name translates as The House at the Minute, and Kafka once lived here. It’s obviously a lot older than that though. It’s a Renaissance building, with sgraffito decoration. Kafka lived here with his parents from 1889 to 1896.
Franz Kafka’s Prague: St Nicolas’s Church To… St Nicholas’s Church
We loop around the back of the Old Town Square now. This is the Church of Saint Nicholas, actually very close to a spot we will visit later. See if you recognise it. The early stages of the walk/game actually involved so much doubling back I was wondering if I got it wrong. But I don’t think so, I think it’s more to create a narrative.And just like that we are back in the Jewish Quarter, and Prague’s oldest synagogue. Like many such ironic names (the Pont Neuf in Paris, the Ghetto Nuovo in Venice), the Old New Synagogue is Prague’s oldest. Actually it’s the oldest active synagogue in Europe. The downside to my early morning walking tour is that I couldn’t go into any of the sights I saw. The Old New Synagogue dates to 1270, one of Prague’s first Gothic buildings. The legend of the Golem of Prague is linked to this building.Just on the right (I neglected to get a solo shot of it) is the Jewish Town Hall (Židovská radnice). It’s a 1586 building with a later Rococo facade. Notably it has two clocks, one with Roman and one with Hebrew numerals.Some more impressive (and quiet) Prague streets.And another of the Jewish Quarter’s synagogues. This is the Maiselova Synagoga.This building, on Franz Kafka Square, is important for a number of reasons. It was once the entrance to the Jewish Quarter. The impressive entrance arch is the only remaining original element from a later rebuild. This is also the building in which little Franz was born to Julie and Hermann Kafka in 1883. And as a marker in the history of our own morning walk, it’s also right next to the Church of Saint Nicholas we saw earlier.
Around The Old Town Square
An atmospheric covered street as we head back towards the Old Town Square.Let’s stop for a minute at the Astronomical Clock. This is one of Prague’s most famous attractions. It’s the third oldest astronomical clock in the world, and the oldest one still in use. It dates all the way back to 1410, which is hugely impressive. The twelve apostles appear on the hour, which attracts great crowds. Again early morning is a perfect time to see it.And we are back in the Old Town Square, this time from a different point of view. The imposing towers in the background belong to the Gothic Church of Our Lady before Týn.And from another perspective we see part of the Jan Hus Memorial. It was unveiled in 1915 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of Jan Hus, church reformer and martyr. The designer was Ladislav Šaloun.And this, on the edge of the Old Town Square, is the Národní galerie Praha. The National Gallery of Prague. The National Gallery maintains a few sites, and this one displays older works in the collection. The building is the Kinsky Palace, where a young Kafka studied before it was a museum, and his father once managed a retail store.This is another interesting building on the Old Town Square. It is generally known as the House of the Stone Lamb, but the stone lamb is also identified by some as a unicorn. I didn’t take a close up picture of it for some reason so you can look here. Other than its amusing carving, we’re here because this is another building with a Kafka connection. A former resident, Berta Fantova, ran a philosophical salon here for local intellectuals. Kafka frequented it, as did Albert Einstein. Einstein would play the violin during literary readings on his short stint in Prague. It’s funny to think of these two important figures frequenting the same circles before they were famous.
Franz Kafka’s Prague: University Of Prague To Rasende Reporter
The University of Prague, part of which you see here, is one of Europe’s oldest. Our Questo walk says at 1358 it’s the oldest North of the Alps, but this can’t be true if you take Oxford, the Sorbonne and Cambridge into account. But very old, in any case. Kafka studied law here as he thought a job as a law clerk would give him time to write.Just across from the university is the Estates Theatre. It’s the only theatre in the world still standing in which Mozart played. Don Giovanni debuted here in 1787.After learning the law nearby, Kafka worked for a time in this courthouse at the left of the image. Its complexity and bureaucracy may have inspired The Trial.Just some buildings I liked on the way to the next stop. The top one is the House at the Black Madonna (Dům U Černé Matky Boží) which features some Czech Cubist elements.And here we are at that next stop. This is the Powder Tower, a medieval Gothic city gate. Kafka would meet a friend here after work most days to walk home. Apparently he was eternally late for these meetings, but his friend must not have minded.Not a building of note for our walk/game, but the Czech National Bank. Rather an imposing edifice.This is Obecní dům, Municipal House, which hosts concerts, opera and exhibitions. It’s a very striking example of Prague’s abundant Art Nouveau architecture.Here’s another stop on our Questo walk, where I had to answer a code-breaking question. The low white building was formerly newspaper offices, and the memorial is to Egon Erwin Kisch. A journalist who wrote in German, Kisch was an outspoken anti-fascist and communist. The newspaper, the Rasende Reporter, is one that would have been read by Kafka and his circle.
Around Wenceslas Square
We’re almost at Wenceslas Square now, and have located another building in which Kafka once worked. This was the Generali Insurance Company’s Prague headquarters. Don’t be alarmed if the light looks different in the two images. We’re almost at the point where I ran out of time for the day and had to pick the adventure up again the following morning, so the bottom image was taken the next day.A view up Wenceslas Square towards the National Museum. Saint Wenceslas, other than being a Victorian Christmas carol, is the patron saint of Bohemia. This square has been a site for demonstrations and celebrations over the years. Just behind me in this photograph was a stop on my Questo walk, but one which shows the dangers of relying on a city remaining static. I couldn’t have answered the quiz question without a clue, as the relevant sight has changed. But as I mentioned you can skip questions if you need to, so it doesn’t hold up the flow of the walk.This lovely art nouveau hotel is currently undergoing renovation, but is generally known for its intact and luxurious interiors. Pre-renovation it was the Grand Hotel Europa, I’m unsure whether this will change but either way it’s easy to spot on Wenceslas Square.Another notable building on Wenceslas Square is the Palác Lucerna. Built between 1907 and 1920 by Vácslav Havel, it has an interesting modern style. Havel’s grandson was later the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until its dissolution. Admiring the Lucerna Palace on a crisp, clear morning, I little suspected I would be back the following night for a fun 80s/90s night at Lucerna Music Bar. But I was, and it was great.Lucerna Palace has a couple of internal shopping arcades, and my walk led me down one to discover this intriguing statue. The artist is David Černý, known for his modern surrealist works including babies crawling up Prague’s television tower. This one is a statue of King Wenceslas riding an upside-down dead horse. Apparently there is an agreement that the statue remain in situ until the monarchy is restored. Could be a while.
A New Day Dawns
And… it’s now the next day! I liked the ability to pause and return to my Questo adventure. It meant I wasn’t in a hurry to finish the walk, and could come back the following morning and take my time. We are slightly off track though, so please bear with me while I walk back to the Lucerna Palace. Here I was admiring this new copper cupola in the morning sun.Some nice sculptures and grave markers on a nearby church.Generally a lot of nice buildings if you look up above street level.And we come up the side of the Generali building we saw earlier, into Wenceslas Square, and are back on track. Thanks for coming on that short detour with me.One thing I really liked about this walk was the chance to poke about in side streets. You never know what you will come across, like this combination of periods and styles.We are getting close to the end of our walk now. We started at one Kafka memorial, and are now at another. This one is again by David Černý. It’s Kafkova Hlava, or Kafka’s Head. It’s a kinetic work, with 42 independently rotating levels. They only come together once an hour to form a face as you see here. Unless, that is, you are here outside of hours, in which case you get to see the face but not the piece in action.
Franz Kafka’s Prague: The Conclusion
The next stop I absolutely could not find. There was meant to be a memorial to a Jewish cemetery that lay under this modern square. The Questo information talked about preserved gravestones. But I couldn’t see a trace of it. Either I really misunderstood the instructions, or it’s gone. I couldn’t even figure it out by Googling what I was looking for. So this one is a mystery. You’ll have to make do with some photos of me failing to find it.Some more nice facades as we head to our final stop. I took two photos here of the same building, but I don’t recall it being a stop on the walk. But I found that the GPS also works to shut off access to completed Questo walks once you’re not in the area any longer. So I am reliant on my faulty memory in some places!This one I do remember. This is Cafe Louvre, once frequented by Kafka and Einstein among other guests. Kafka came as a student, to participate in a philosophical circle which gathered here.And the final stop on our walk is this one. The Velvet Revolution was long after Kafka’s time, but a key moment in Prague and Czech history nonetheless. On 17 November 1989, a group of mostly students headed to Wenceslas Square to mark 50 years since the Nazi occupation. They were met by riot police, and the movement grew until it ended with a non-violent transition of power away from one party rule. A good reflecting point on the layers and traces of history on which to end.
So how did my foray into gamified tourism go? Well I rather enjoyed it! It was a good way to explore the city, take routes that might not have occurred to me, and find out the story of the buildings I saw along the way. There isn’t much on Questo in London which takes my fancy, but I will check out other cities as I visit to find more hidden stories and fun (not necessarily earlybird) adventures.
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