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All Czechia Prague Franz Kafka Museum

Franz Kafka Museum

An eerie, existential museum dedicated to the author of "The Metamorphosis."

Prague, Czechia

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Nathan Turner
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“The Machine,” a display at the Kafka Museum.   Alfred Lord Tennisanyone / Atlas Obscura User
Exhibits at the Franz Kafka Museum.   Nico Paix
Exhibits at the Franz Kafka Museum.   jockrutherford
The entrance to the Franz Kafka Museum.   Catatine
  Fred Cherrygarden / Atlas Obscura User
  Fred Cherrygarden / Atlas Obscura User
  rbenn250 / Atlas Obscura User
  breaingram / Atlas Obscura User
  breaingram / Atlas Obscura User
Franz Kafka Museum, one of the existential absurd videos  
Franz Kafka Museum, The Metamorphosis  
Kafka’s handwritten manuscript for “The Trial.”   Pablo Sanchez
The small courtyard that houses the Kafka Museum as well as the Černý fountain.   ŠJů
Stairs leading down into the Franz Kafka Museum.   Alfred Lord Tennisanyone / Atlas Obscura User
  Fred Cherrygarden / Atlas Obscura User
The dark gallery of the Franz Kafka Museum.   Alfred Lord Tennisanyone / Atlas Obscura User
  Fred Cherrygarden / Atlas Obscura User
  Fred Cherrygarden / Atlas Obscura User
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About

On the west bank of the Vltava river, a stone's throw away from the Charles Bridge, sits a quaint square. On the far side of the square are a pair of double doors which lead into one of the most curious, dark, and transportive museums in eastern Europe.

The dark, immersive gallery of the Franz Kafka Museum exhibits the author's personal artifacts next to eerie representations of his ideas. The museum plays between the lines of fact and fiction, reality and fantasy, to illustrate how Kafka was affected by Prague, and in turn how the city was shaped by his writing about it. The schools, apartments, offices, and streets Kafka frequented appeared in his stories as allegories for various kinds of suffering. 

Divided into two parts, "Existential Space" and "Imaginary Topography," the museum draws a rope taut through the life of Kafka. Through a cornucopia of letters, journal entries, photographs, eerie soundscapes, and 3D installations, it weaves a tapestry of intellectual, artistic, experiential, and nightmarish displays. Various mechanical statues illustrate the writer's strange, sometimes absurd ideas, such as David Černý's pissing fountain in the museum courtyard. The exhibit mimics the surreal effects of Kafka's writing, haunting the visitor long after the experience is over.

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Literature Books Museums And Collections Museums Collections

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Added By

Alfred Lord Tennisanyone

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hrnick, Molly McBride Jacobson, Sebastian Wortys, rbenn250...

  • hrnick
  • Molly McBride Jacobson
  • Sebastian Wortys
  • rbenn250
  • breaingram
  • Fred Cherrygarden
  • unimoggers

Published

April 6, 2017

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  • http://www.czechtourism.com/c/prague-franz-kafka-museum/
  • http://www.prague.net/franz-kafka-museum
Franz Kafka Museum
2A Cihelná
Prague, 118 00
Czechia
50.087955, 14.410508
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