It’s the tiniest house in the smallest street of Prague. It used to be the house of a castle guard, but today it’s a souvenir shop. Closed off from the public for centuries, it’s now one of the the most visited places of Prague. The Golden Lane, the street where the house is located, is only accessible when buying an entrance ticket. You enter the place through a metal gate.

A while ago the little street was renovated. Not by a team of historians or building experts, but by the employees of a famous Czech film company. The tangible history of this street, where famous residents as Franz Kafka and Jaroslav Seifert (Nobel Prize winner) had lived, apparently didn’t comply. A new layer of movie magic had to be added. As a result many of the houses now accommodate interiors of people that ‘could have lived there’. It’s staged authenticity in its purest form.

In every way it’s obvious that a lot has changed since the 16th century. I can’t help but wonder how it used to be there back then. And I wish, if only for a moment, to go back in history…

This is part of the project Pleasure Park Prague by Rick van der Linden