Jewish Town - Monuments of the Ghetto

The Staronová (Old-New) Synagogue [No.2], on the corner of Pařížská and Červená Streets is the second oldest, Prague synagogue and is one of the oldest surviving Jewish places of worship in Europe. Originally it was called Nová (New), to differentiate it from the Stará škola (the Old School) in today's Dušní Street. When however in the 17th century another large synagogue was built in Široká Street and was called Nová (New), this one started to be called Staronová.

By the steps we enter the vestibule which adjoins the main, two-nave building from the side. In the 17th century strongboxes were placed here for the collection of the Jewish tax. The entrance into the main area of the synagogue is through a gothic portal with the most beautiful tympanum, decorated with relief carving of vine leaves and trusses of grapes. The relief has a symbolic significance and depicts the 12 tribes of Israel as 12 branches of the same stem.

The synagogue itself is surprisingly spacious. The rectangular area is divided by two pillars into two gothic naves. The pillars carry five ribbed vaulting ended by decorated corbels. We can see that, in contrast to Catholic churches, where only four ribs run to the ceiling bosses, the Old-New Synagogue has five. According to legend, it is so that the vaulting does not form the Christian symbol of the cross on the ceiling. In reality five-ribbed vaulting has its origins in Cistercian architecture.

The walls are lined with seats, which were inherited from generation to generation and had to be paid for. Only men used to sit on them. Women only had access to the synagogue on the day of their wedding and otherwise had to follow the reading from the Torah through a window of a side corridor. The seat on the right of the casket for the Torah is more decorated than the others. According to legend, it was here that the wise rabbi Löw used to sit.

The small window in the centre of the east wall was used to ascertain the exact time of the morning sunrise. Morning prayers started when the first rays of sunlight shone through it into the synagogue. Among the interesting objects in the synagogue is a huge banner. It is the historic flag of the Jewish community, whose use stems from privileges granted to the community by the Emperor Charles IV.

Exactly opposite the entrance to the Old-New Synagogue is the entrance into the Vysoká Synagogue (No. 101/5). It was also called the Town Hall Synagogue, because it was connected with the neighbouring house, the Jewish Town Hall. Apart from its function as the Town Hall place of worship it was used for sittings of the rabbinical court. Together with the Town Hall, it was built at the expense of the mayor of the Jewish Town and benefactor of the community, Mordechai Maisel, in the second half of the 16th century by Pankratius Roder in renaissance style. The vaulting of the main hall is particularly beautiful. The ribs surviving from the gothic period have no load bearing purpose but their aesthetic function is increased: they form a rich ornament with circular scrolls, rosettes and in the centre an eight-pointed star.

The Synagogue was rebuilt many times and nowadays is used as an exhibition hall. Numerous exhibits show the religious customs and everyday life of the Jewish community.

Next to the High Synagogue is the oldest Jewish Town Hall in the world (No.63/3), built by the architect Pankratius Roderat and also paid for by Mordechai Maisel. Originally it had the same plain walls as the neighbouring synagogue. After the fire in 1689 it was renovated in baroque style and between 1763-1765 a rebuilding in rococco style commenced. This was how the ghetto gained a quite unusually playful and charming building, decorated by a gallery with an elaborate, rococco grill and a cupola with a lantern, crowned with a Jewish star at the top. On the tower we can see two clocks dating from 1764. One is the classic clock with Roman numerals, the second, the more well known, has Hebrew numerals and the hands turn anti-clockwise.

Before we enter the Street U židvského hřbitova we also notice the small park in front of the Old-New Synagogue. On this spot stood the famous Denice tavern, which was visited by the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire. Perhaps it was just here that verses from his famous collection came to him “…like Lazarus, whom the light shatters, anti clockwise turn the hands of the clock in the Jewish quarter”.

The Street U Židovského hřbitova used to be called Hampejzská (brothels), because there were here at least two large establishments of that type. On the right, exactly in front of the entrance to the Old Jewish Cemetery, is the Klaus Synagogue (No.243/1). Mordechai Maisel contributed to the cost of the construction of this synagogue in the 1660s, this time together with rabbi Löw and Elieser Ashkenazy. The structure consisted of three small buildings called Klausy. In the first was the famous talmudic school of rabbi Löw, in the second the synagogue itself and in the third a hospital, probably even with baths. After the fire in 1689 it was rebuilt and in the 1880s altered into its present appearance. Nowadays in the synagogue is an exhibition of Old Hebrew prints and manuscripts.

On the right of the entrance to the cemetery is the ceremonial funeral hall (No.243/3a), rebuilt in 1906 into a neo romanesque castle. Nowadays it is also used as an exhibition hall. We however enter the Starý židovský hřbitov (the Old Jewish Cemetery) which is called Beth-chaim, the House of Life.

“And such decrepit and broken gravestones lie heaped in dense disorder, as if felled and thrown aside by fighting mobs under the earth,” so wrote, in serious vein and with amazement, the English humorist Jerome Klapka Jerome in 1900, during a visit to the Old Jewish Cemetery. Indeed what first catches the visitor's attention, are the haphazard heaps of leaning headstones, some half or almost totally buried in the ground, others jutting out straight to heaven. The shortage of space was the main reason for this strange overcrowding. In a relatively tiny area, up to six layers deep in places, about 20,000 members of the Jewish faith are buried. There are 12,000 headstones.

The original Jewish cemetery in Prague, dating from the time of Přemysl Otakar II, was situated on the site of today's Vladislavova and Spálená Streets. It was called the Jewish Garden. However this was no longer in use after 1478. Some headstones, found there in the 19th century during the construction of some houses, were transferred to the Old Jewish cemetery. This was founded in the middle of the 15th century. The oldest surviving grave is of rabbi Avigdor Kara and bears the date 23 April 1439.

In the 15th century scattered around here were several small cemeteries, but they were soon amalgamated into one. The extent of today's cemetery is about the same as it was in the Middle Ages. Although the cemetery was enlarged three times, it was always by a very small piece of land; a characteristic feature of the Jewish Town was the shortage of space, and what was true for the living, also applied to the dead. As the Jewish faith decreed that the bones of the buried must be left in the ground and may not be moved, there was no alternative other than to add more layers to the cemetery. The burials took place according to Jewish rites, without coffins and into shallow ground.

The last burial here was in 1787. After that burials were arranged in the old cemetery in žižkov, close to Mahler Gardens and later in the Jewish Cemetery in Olšany. Nowadays many people visit the Old Jewish Cemetery to honour the centuries old memory of their direct ancestors.

The symbols themselves carved on the headstones are also interesting. Apart from common ones such as trusses of grapes or pine cones, which meant fruitfulness and diligence, there are many signs indentifying members of the priestly Cohen family (blessing hands - between the index and middle finger is a gap and the rest of the fingers are together) or the temple servants the Levites (a jug). The sign of a crown indicates the erudition of a man, a scholar of the Torah. Sometimes names are illustrated by relief carving - Löw by a lion, Hirsch by a stag, others by a carp, a fox, a bear, a cockerel and others. Some symbols signify the occupation of the deceased, for instance a tailor's scissors, a pharmacist's mortar and pestle or a doctor's forcepts. In contrast to most other Jewish cemeteries, we find reliefs depicting the human figure. However in order to avoid the stonemasons breaking religious taboos about depicting people (it would be considered an arrogant attempt to imitate God's creation), they were consciously made imperfect. This showed that man was conscious of his inferior powers. Some human representations have symbolic meaning : small girls with hands folded in their laps symbolise unfulfilled womanhood, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden probably show the state of bliss.

Everyone's footsteps are directed to the tomb of Rabbi Löw. This wise man lived between 1520 and 1609. He was born in Poznan and was active for a long time in Mikulov. He is known as a philosopher of religion, a famous teacher and a scholar. His contact with Emperor Rudolf II, elaborated in legend, is not corroborated, but on the other hand it is possible, that he was in touch with the Danish astronomer Ticho Brahe, who lived in Prague at that time. Many yarns are spun about his life, however the Golem legend, which is the most famous, was only associated with rabbi Löw as late as the 19th century. It was spread mainly because of the mysteriousness and bizarre nature of the Prague Jewish Town.

Right next to the tomb of rabbi Löw, is the narrow grave of his grandson. According to legend he wished to be buried next to his grandfather, but there was not sufficient space. When he died, apparently rabbi Löw's tomb moved aside, so that the grandson's wish could be granted.

Among the interesting graves is the grandiose tomb of Jakub Baševi, with the aristocratic coat of arms belonging to this post White Mountain profiteer and first Jew elevated to the ranks of the aristocracy. Fate ordained however that as a result of intrigue, which he himself initiated, he eventually died in Kolín and his wife Hendel was buried in the tomb. Legend says that also resting here is a Polish Queen who converted to the Jewish faith so that she could be buried in the Prague Jewish cemetery.

In Maiselova Street is the Maisel Synagogue (No. 63/10). It was again built between 1590-1593 and paid for by the rich mayor of the Jewish Town, Mordechai Maisel. It was to be an imposing renaissance building, with the innovation of having special areas designed for women. It was in the ghetto at this time that women were for the first time allowed access into the synagogue. The synagogue was unfortunately rebuilt a few times and its length reduced. Today's neo-gothic appearance comes from the rebuilding in the 1860s and the beginning of the 20th century. Inside now is an interesting exhibition of silverware objects used in synagogues.

In Široká Street by the cemetery wall is the ancient Pinkas Synagogue (No.23/3), which is among the oldest in the ghetto. It is the finest renaissance building of the Jewish Town, significant mainly for its interior, which has a preserved well with a ritual bath (mikev). It was founded in 1479 by rabbi Pinkas and rebuilt by his grandson. It was subject to frequent flooding and consequently was altered several times. In 1960 the world famous memorial to the victims of Nazism was opened here. On the walls were written the names of all 77,297 martyred Jews from Bohemia and Moravia. This tragic register probably forms the most complete burial inscription in the world. At the present time it is being renovated.

If we return through Široká Street beyond Paříská Avenue, we see on our left the decorated building of the Španělská (Spanish) Synagogue (No.141/12). The name dates from the last rebuilding in the second half of the 19th century, during which motifs from the Spanish-Moorish Alhambra Palace were used for decoration. Originally the Stará škola (the Old School) was here, the oldest synagogue in Prague, belonging to the Sephardic Jews who adhered to the eastern rites. It was rebuilt many times. Interestingly in 1837, the first reformed Jewish service was introduced here. For the first time in a Jewish house of worship an organ was installed and the first organist, František škroup, became the composer of the Czech national anthem. Since 1960 it has housed a unique collection of synagogal textiles.

The walk through the Jewish Town is at an end. It was relatively short because only a little of it has survived. In spite of that the Prague Jewish Museum takes care of the most extensive and artistically valuable collection of memorials to the Jewish nation in Europe.

Walking Tour Route Map

Tour Legend

1. Pařížská
2. Červená
3. U Starého hřbitova
4. Maiselova
5. Široká