FORMER JEWISH GHETTO NEIGHBOURHOOD

The former Jewish Ghetto Quarter and Trastevere ( walking tour only)

The tour will begin in Trastevere and then move on to the Jewish Ghetto The Roman Ghetto is considered the oldest ghetto in the western world. Pope Paul IV, known for his violent temper, commissioned the establishment of a special ghetto in 1555. Roman Jews were stripped of all their rights and confined in a square of small territory with two entrances-exits. An average of 3,000 Jews lived in the ghetto on an area of 3 hectares. In 1849, after Italy was declared a republic, the ghetto gates were torn down, and in 1870 Jews were finally made equal to Italian citizens.

The neighbourhood began to be expanded and built up. But the worst event in the Jewish ghetto was yet to come.

At dawn on 16 October 1943, the Nazis surrounded the quarter and took 1,000 Jews hostage. Two days later, they were loaded onto trains and taken to the camp at Auschwitz. Of the 1,000 people in the camp, only sixteen survived.

From the sights that have survived to this day, you will see:

  • The two-storey synagogue, erected in 1904, is one of the main attractions of the ghetto. Its huge dome is visible from all panoramic points in Rome. In the underground floors of the synagogue there is a museum of Jewish history and the Spanish Chapel – a small synagogue, which is also worthy of a separate visit.
  • Octavia Portico – built more than two thousand years ago by order of Emperor Augustus. Through the portico you can reach the theatre of Marcellus – the “grandfather” of the Colosseum.
  • The Fountain of the Turtles – a small gem of the Jewish ghetto.
  • And finally, don’t forget to cross over to the neighbouring isola Tiberina, the smallest inhabited island in the world.
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