Josefov Jewish Quarter
Ideal: Ideal for history, culture, religious heritage, and deeper city exploration.
About 12,000 gravestones are visible in the Old Jewish Cemetery, but nearly 100,000 people lie beneath the soil: because the community was not allowed to expand, graves were dug up to twelve layers deep and stones moved upward each time. The Old-New Synagogue from 1270 is Europe's oldest synagogue still in use, and legend says the Golem rests in the attic. The reason objects in the quarter survived so intact is painful: Nazis collected items from Jewish communities across the country to assemble here a 'museum of an extinct race'.
Did you know?
Why is the Old Jewish Cemetery so crowded?
The quarter could not be enlarged, so burials were layered on top of each other up to 12 deep. About 12,000 headstones are visible, but an estimated 100,000 or more people lie there.
Why were the synagogues not destroyed?
The Nazis planned to turn the quarter into a "museum of an extinct race", so they preserved the buildings and objects gathered from across Europe. Today's Jewish Museum collection rests on that grim origin.
What are the names on the walls of the Pinkas Synagogue?
Written by hand are the names of some 78,000 Bohemian and Moravian Jews murdered in the Holocaust. They were painted over in the communist era and rewritten after the 1990s.
Why go?
- To see Prague's Jewish heritage and historic synagogues
- To experience powerful memory sites such as the Old Jewish Cemetery
- To add deeper cultural context to a classic city tour
Travel tip
Some areas are ticketed and can be busy; look for ticket options covering several synagogues and the cemetery together.
