Franz Kafka Statue in Prague: Róna & the Rotating Head

Kafka: posthumous fame and his mark on Prague

Franz Kafka never saw the recognition his work would eventually earn. For decades his writing went unnoticed, when it wasn’t outright censored: his background — Jewish and middle-class — landed him on the blacklist of Nazis and Communists alike, and writing in German did him no favors in a Prague that was reclaiming everything Czech after the First World War.

The city has since made its peace with one of its most universal sons. Since the Franz Kafka Museum opened in 2001, Prague has filled up with references to the writer: plaques, cafés that carry his name, a square, several sculptures. Of all those traces, the two most visible are the statues we’ll walk you through below.

The two great Kafka statues in Prague

Prague has given Kafka two sculptures worth a visit of their own. The first, from 2003, stands in the Jewish Quarter; the second, from 2014, sits in the heart of the New Town. They’re completely different in style, scale, and meaning — which is exactly why you want to see both.

Jaroslav Róna’s statue, in the Jewish Quarter

In 2003, the city unveiled the first major statue dedicated to Kafka. Czech sculptor Jaroslav Róna won the public competition with a piece that’s still one of the most photographed images in the Jewish Quarter: a 3.75-meter bronze weighing 800 kilos, in which a small Kafka sits on the shoulders of a headless man in a suit.

The composition draws on “Description of a Struggle,” one of Kafka’s earliest stories (written around 1904, published after his death). The underlying theme is the individual overwhelmed by the absurd. The headless figure has a more personal reading too: the writer’s father, the towering, authoritarian presence that runs through much of Kafka’s work.

Here’s a detail most people miss. On the ground, beneath the statue’s feet, a black mosaic spreads insect legs in every direction. It’s Róna’s nod to “The Metamorphosis,” Kafka’s best-known work. Look down before you walk away.

Where it is: Vězeňská street, next to the Spanish Synagogue, in the heart of the Jewish Quarter (Josefov). A 5-minute walk from Old Town Square. It’s outdoors, free, and open at any hour. View location on Google Maps.

We pass it every day with travelers on our Old Town and Jewish Quarter free tour: it’s one of the regular stops, with the historical context and the mosaic story almost no one notices.

David Černý’s rotating Kafka head

Eleven years after Róna’s, in November 2014, Prague unveiled the other major sculpture: “K,” better known as the rotating Kafka head. It’s signed by the most high-profile Czech artist of recent decades, David Černý — also behind the crawling babies on the Žižkov tower and the peeing-men fountain in front of the Kafka Museum.

This is kinetic art at full tilt: nearly 11 meters tall (10.6 m), about 39 tons, and 42 horizontal stainless-steel layers that rotate independently, forming and breaking Kafka’s face over and over. The effect, especially in sunlight, is hypnotic. It has a twin, Metalmorphosis, in Charlotte, North Carolina — but the Prague one is larger and far more visited.

As for the meaning, Černý has never spelled it out. The usual readings: the constant reshaping of identity (a clear link to “The Metamorphosis”), the writer’s emotional instability, or Kafka’s own posthumous fame, made and unmade by every era.

Where it is: Charvátova street, in the New Town (Nové Město), above the Národní třída metro station, at the back entrance of the Quadrio shopping center. A 5-minute walk from Wenceslas Square. It turns through the day, with occasional technical pauses. View location on Google Maps.

The head sits on a street loaded with 20th-century history: a few meters away, in November 1989, police charged the students who set off the Velvet Revolution and ended four decades of Communist rule. That’s why it’s one of the stops on our 20th-century Prague free tour — telling the story here, right on the students’ memorial, changes how you see it.

Other traces of Kafka in Prague

Beyond the two big sculptures, Prague holds a few subtler references to the writer:

• Kafka’s birthplace. On the corner of Maiselova and U Radnice, next to Old Town Square, a plaque and bust mark where he was born on July 3, 1883. The original house burned down; what you see today is the reconstruction.
• Franz Kafka Museum. In Malá Strana, facing the Vltava, devoted to his life and work. It’s the only one of these spots with paid admission.
• Franz Kafka Square (Náměstí Franze Kafky). A quiet little square next to his birthplace, where temporary exhibitions sometimes pop up.

How to see both statues in one day

The two big sculptures are about 20–25 minutes apart on foot. Here’s the logical route:

• Start with Róna’s statue in the Jewish Quarter early, with fewer tourists and better light.
• Walk to Old Town Square (3 minutes) — a good moment to catch the Astronomical Clock.
• Head down Na Příkopě to Wenceslas Square (10 minutes).
• From the bottom of Wenceslas Square, five more minutes along Národní brings you to the rotating head.

Running it in reverse works too, but the light for photographing the head is better in mid-morning or around noon. And if your trip is already mapped out, this route slots neatly into day one of the classic itinerary — here’s our Prague in 2 days guide if you still need to sort out the rest of the trip.

Kafka is one of those figures Prague was slow to honor, but it now does so in style: two monumental sculptures and a handful of plaques, museums, and squares that carry his name. If you’d rather have a local guide tell you the stories on the ground — the history and the details the signs leave out — both statues fall on two of our walks: Róna’s on the Old Town and Jewish Quarter free tour, and Černý’s rotating head on the 20th-century Prague free tour.

See you in Prague.