Golden Lane is a narrow street with small houses built into the fortifications of Prague Castle, where exhibitions now present the life of its residents from the 16th century.
Golden Lane is a narrow street of colourful small houses within the Prague Castle complex, between the Bílá věž and the Daliborka tower. According to Prague City Tourism, the houses were built around the end of the 16th century in the walls of the castle fortifications and were inhabited until the Second World War.[2]
Origin and appearance
The lane lies on the northern side of the castle between Romanesque and late Gothic fortifications. The houses were built into the arches of the defensive walls, which Benedikt Ried built around 1500, and behind them are the tops of the fortifications. The street was formerly called Zlatnická, possibly because goldsmiths lived there. Its present appearance dates from 1955. The turn-off into the lane is roughly in the middle of Jiřská Street.[2]
After extensive restoration, the residential houses were used for exhibitions about life in the lane over the past five hundred years.[2]
Exhibition and houses
The permanent exhibition occupies nine of the sixteen houses. The rooms depict real residents from the 16th century to the 1950s; the exception are the alchemists, who are fictional. Visitors can see, for example, the household of the lane's oldest residents, the so-called red riflemen who guarded the castle gates, a goldsmith's workshop, a pub and a herbalist's house. In other houses, handmade souvenirs are sold, such as wooden toys, puppets, ceramics, pewter figurines, jewellery and books related to Franz Kafka.[2]
Franz Kafka lived and worked in house number 22 in 1916–1917.[2] According to the operator, alchemists never lived in the lane, yet an alchemist's workshop can be seen there.[2]
Bílá věž and Daliborka
The western end of the lane is closed by the Bílá věž tower. Originally a defensive tower, it served from 1586 as a prison, where offenders, especially from the nobility, were held. The last prisoner left it in 1743.[2]
At the eastern end stands the round tower Daliborka, built in 1496, which served as a prison until 1781 and is named after its first prisoner, Dalibor of Kozojedy. Besides a dungeon with monumental vaults, it has a circular opening in the floor through which prisoners were lowered by a pulley into an underground cell.[2]
Above the roofs of the houses runs a defensive corridor hidden behind stone masonry, where suits of knightly armour are displayed. It is entered from the Bílá věž or from the green house by the Daliborka. There is also a small café in the lane.[2]
Access
Golden Lane is part of the Prague Castle tour circuit. After closing time, according to Prague City Tourism, it is open free of charge, without the possibility of visiting the interiors of the houses.[2]