The Franz Kafka Monument

The Franz Kafka Monument was unveiled in Prague on December 4, 2003. Commemorating one of the world's greatest writers and the famous native of Prague, this bronze sculpture by Czech sculptor Jaroslav Róna stands between Prague's Church of the Holy Spirit and its Spanish Synagogue. The statue is 3.75 meters high and weighs 700 kilos. Cast by Miloš Vacek´s Bronze Foundry, it was designed by Jaroslav Róna and made in conjunction with the Architectural Studio of David Vávra. The construction of the Franz Kafka monument in Prague is a project of the Franz Kafka Society, which succeeded in finishing it within four years thanks to the financial and organizational support of Prague's District 1, the City of Prague, and the Nova Foundation. The monument was unveiled during the year marking the 120th anniversary of the birth of the great writer.

The idea of building a Kafka monument in Prague was born in the Franz Kafka Society shortly after its establishment in 1990. Publication of Franz Kafka´s works in Czech translation, establishment of an international literary prize bearing Kafka´s name, and construction of a Kafka monument in Prague are the three key tasks the Franz Kafka Society had set itself. (At the moment, just three volumes of The Works of Franz Kafka remain to be issued to meet all these goals). The idea of erecting the monument assumed specific outlines after the project had received support from the society "Prague - the European City of Culture 2000". And that year also saw an art competition, an exhibition of posters (held in the Franz Kafka Gallery in Prague's Old Town Square), and the publication of an exhibition catalog.

Organized by the Franz Kafka Society, the art competition invited seven leading Czech artists to take part in the project, namely: Nikos Armutidis, Jan Hendrych, Jan Koblasa, Stefan Milkov, Karel Nepraš, Jaroslav Róna and Olbram Zoubek. (Their designs prepared for the competition are today kept in the premises of the Franz Kafka Society, in its room also housing the Kafka Library). All the artists had received photographs of the chosen locality, plus competition rules and criteria. Their designs were judged in two rounds by an 11-man jury, made up of art historians and officials of the Franz Kafka Society, the Prague City Hall and the Prague 1 District. The jury comprised the following members: Jaromíra Eismannová, Kurt Gebauer, Karel Hejtmánek, Bohuslav Holý, Magdalena Juříková, Josef Kroutvor, Ladislava Pošvová, Jiří Šetlík, Jan Vít, Petr Wittlich and Vladimír Železný. Jaroslav Róna´s design was selected in the second round by eight out of the 11 jurymen, while the remaining three jurymen put the winning entry at second or third places.

The locality for the monument - a small park between the Church of the Holy Spirit and the Spanish Synagogue - was selected in cooperation with the officials of the institutions responsible for town-planing in Prague. Three different localities were originally considered: one near the Intercontinental Hotel, on the site of today's car park - this is the site of the former house where the Kafka family used to live; the second one was in a small square in front of Dlouhá Street, and finally the third locality was a spot where Dušní, V?ze?ská and V Kolkovn? Streets meet and where a traffic circle is now situated. The current site was selected due to many technical as well as ideological reasons.

A scaled-down cast of the Kafka monument, also made of bronze, symbolizes the Franz Kafka International Literary Prize held by the Franz Kafka Society in conjunction with the City of Prague since 2001. Its laureates and owners of the statuettes so far are the following writers - Philip Roth, Ivan Klíma, Péter Nádas, Elfriede Jelinek, Harold Pinter and Haruki Murakami.