A neo-Baroque house with a dome on one of Prague’s old commercial streets, built for an insurance institute whose most famous clerk spent his days assessing industrial accidents and his nights writing.
At a glance
The house at Na Poříčí 1075/7, in Prague’s New Town, was built in 1894 to a design by the architect Alfons Wertmüller as the seat of the Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia (Dělnická úrazová pojišťovna pro Království české). It is a neo-Baroque building crowned by a dome, and in the early twentieth century Franz Kafka was employed here. Today the building houses the Century Old Town Prague hotel, at the address Na Poříčí 7, Prague 1.
Key facts
- Built: 1894
- Architect: Alfons Wertmüller
- Style: neo-Baroque, with a dome
- Built for: the Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia
- The clerk: Franz Kafka was employed here in the early twentieth century
- Today: Century Old Town Prague hotel, Na Poříčí 7, Prague 1
History
Na Poříčí is one of the streets where nineteenth-century Prague did its business, lined with banks, hotels and institutions. The insurance institute that commissioned this house handled the industrial accidents of Bohemia — and its office is remembered above all for one employee. Franz Kafka was employed by the Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute — the day job from which the novels and stories were wrested. The house where the writer of The Trial processed injury claims now receives hotel guests; the dome and the neo-Baroque front are the ones Kafka walked under.
Sources
- Na Poříčí — Wikipedie (CS) (entry for house no. 1075/II), read 26 August 2026
- Century Old Town Prague — MGallery, Accor (address), read 26 August 2026
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