Description
Padua's Jewish Ghetto is the maze of narrow streets just south of Piazza delle Erbe, in the heart of the city: from 1603 to 1797 the Jews of Padua lived here, locked in at night.
On Via San Martino e Solferino is the Italian-rite synagogue, the only one still in use. On Via delle Piazze, the German synagogue, set on fire by the Fascists in 1943 and restored in 1998, houses the Museum of Jewish Padua.
The ghetto was closed in the evening by four gates, each guarded by one Jew and one Christian. Near the church of San Canziano the hinges of one gate survive; two plaques, in Latin and in Hebrew, reminded the Jews to return at sundown.
The Jewish community had lived in Padua since the Middle Ages, tied to trade and to the University. The ghetto gates were torn down in 1797, when the fall of the Republic of Venice gave the Jews full civil rights.
On Via San Martino e Solferino is the Italian-rite synagogue, the only one still in use. On Via delle Piazze, the German synagogue, set on fire by the Fascists in 1943 and restored in 1998, houses the Museum of Jewish Padua.
The ghetto was closed in the evening by four gates, each guarded by one Jew and one Christian. Near the church of San Canziano the hinges of one gate survive; two plaques, in Latin and in Hebrew, reminded the Jews to return at sundown.
The Jewish community had lived in Padua since the Middle Ages, tied to trade and to the University. The ghetto gates were torn down in 1797, when the fall of the Republic of Venice gave the Jews full civil rights.