Matej Kren’s "Idiom," a cylindrical tower of roughly 8,000 discarded books installed in Prague Municipal Library in 1998, has gone viral on TikTok, drawing queues and up to about 1,000 visitors on peak days. The library is reserving one entrance for tourists and weighing options such as admission fees and custodians to manage crowds. While some praise the sculpture’s visual impact and meaning, others call the craze overblown.
TikTok Turns Prague Library's 8,000-Book Tower Into Viral Tourist Magnet
A pile of books installed at Prague's city library has become the Czech capital's latest tourist hit (Michal Cizek)(Michal Cizek/AFP/AFP)
Prague’s centuries-old cultural attractions have a new, unexpectedly modern draw: a sculpture made famous on TikTok. The work, titled "Idiom" and created by Slovak artist Matej Kren, is a cylindrical tower built from about 8,000 discarded books. With a tear-shaped entrance and mirrors at both ends, the installation creates the optical illusion of an endless tunnel.
The Prague Municipal Library installed the piece in its entrance hall in 1998. It remained relatively unnoticed until around late 2022, when social media attention—driven largely by TikTok—sent visitor numbers soaring.
Why Visitors Are Lining Up
Tourists now queue for selfies and photos. Thai visitor Pattapol Thongsaard told AFP he waited about an hour with roughly 100 others on a chilly evening to peer into the book pile and pose for pictures to post on TikTok and Instagram.
Library Strains Under New Crowds
Lenka Hanzlikova, a spokeswoman for the Municipal Library, says that during peak periods such as Christmas and Easter "Idiom" can draw about 1,000 visitors a day, with waits up to two hours. She attributes the surge to "TikTok algorithms" that amplified the piece’s visibility in late 2022.
"We'll have to deal with it in some way because working with tourist crowds is a completely different service from that we have provided up to now," Hanzlikova told AFP.
To manage demand the library has reserved one of its five entrances for tourists and is considering measures such as admission fees and hiring custodians to organise crowds. Staff also report amusing moments: some people who joined the line were there to return books rather than to see the sculpture.
The Artist And The Artwork
Matej Kren says he created "Idiom" using discarded local books and has shown versions of the work in several cities before selling this piece to the Prague Municipal Library. He describes the sculpture as symbolising "the infinity of learning" but told AFP he never intended it as a mass tourist attraction.
The sculpture has previously been featured on the cover of Science magazine and in Lonely Planet guides, but Kren called the current level of public attention "striking."
Public Reaction
Reactions are mixed. Some visitors, like Ghazal Nour—an Iranian living in Italy—call the work "beautiful" but say the long waits and cold made the visit feel overrated. Others embrace the spectacle and the chance to capture a shareable image.
As social platforms continue to shape travel trends, the Prague Municipal Library faces a new challenge: balancing public access to both its collections and a suddenly iconic piece of contemporary art.
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