Jewish Quarter (Židovské město)

The Jewish Quarter - Josefov includes 6 synagogues (Klaus Synagogue, High Synagogue, Maisel Synagogue, Pinkas Synagogue, the oldest of them being the Old-New Synagogue from the year 1278, the oldest in this part of Central Europe and north of the Alps, and to the property, still belongs the Spanish Synagogue, perhaps the most beautiful, influenced by Arabic art, because the interior of the synagogue resembles the decorations of Alhambra of Grenada. The Jewish Quarter includes the Old Jewish Cemetery with 12,000 headstones for 100 000 people buried there, the House of Ceremonies, neo-Romanesque in style and even the Jewish Town Hall, with the clock turning in the opposite direction, ie from right to left. Talking about the Jewish town, we cannot forget the writer Franz Kafka, who was born on July 3, 1883, in Prague's Old Town, in a house that is situated just behind the Church of St. Nicholas of the Old Town (náměstí Franze Kafky). During 8 years, he studied at a German high school, that was situated, at that time, in a Baroque palace with rococo ornaments in the Old Town Square – the Goltz-Kinsky Palace (now a part of the permanent exhibition of the National Gallery can be found there).