This building, part of the Old Town Hall complex, is a typical example of Czech Renaissance townhouse architecture. The facade, decorated with sgraffito, depicts scenes drawn from biblical and mythological sources, as well as contemporary Renaissance legends. Franz Kafka and his parents lived here from 1889 to 1896.
The house can be found in the neighbourhood of the Old Town Hall area. In core, it is late-Gothic from the beginning of the 15th century; it was modified in Renaissance style after 1564. At the end of the 16th century, the owners added a low third floor to the originally two-storied house, terminated by a mighty lunette cornice. In late Baroque, the position of windows was changed several times. The house is a typical example of Bohemian burgess Renaissance architecture. Before 1712, the house was owned by Matěj Bartl, who ran a pharmacy here. Back then the house was called At the White Lion. From the end of the 18th century on, there was a house emblem in a form of a Classicist sculpture of a white lion. The sculpture of the lion still decorates the corner of the house today. The later name, At the Minute (U Minuty), is derived from the word minutious, i.e. very small, tiny, and it documented the fact that “minced” tobacco used to be sold here.The house was about to be demolished, together with the neighbouring Pecoldovský House, in order to align the block of houses between the Old Town Square and the Small Square. Luckily, a Committee for listing the constructional, artistic and historical monuments of the Capital City of Prague was against it, and when some sgraffitoes were discovered on the neighbouring house in 1905, a decision was made that both houses would remain where they were. Sgraffitoes in the House at the Minute were only discovered in 1919 when it was being repaired.