Judaica. Exploring Jewish Siracuse
Up until their expulsion
by the Spanish sovereign occurred in 1492, Jews constituted
a very important part of Syracuse, amounting at times to a third of
the population, which is to say several thousand people.
The Jewish community of Syracuse was,
in fact, the
most populous in Sicily after that of Palermo.
The Jewish presence in Syracuse is already documented in Roman times and counted among its ranks numerous and rich merchants and bankers.
Although the Jewish presence preceded the date in which all of the Jewish population of the Catholic countries were obligatorily locked in ghettos (starting in 1555), a large part of this population preferred to collect voluntarily in “Jewish quarters”, for very practical and emotional reasons, moreover for understandable self-protection, that gave birth in modern cities to “Italian quarters”, “Chinese quarters”, and so forth.
These neighborhoods were called in Italian
"Giudecche" ("Jewries"), and that of Syracuse is defined
by the principal street that continues to bear the name today of "Via della
Giudecca".
Here arose not only homes but also the
seat of the community: the synagogue, the schools, the kosher
butchers’ shops and bakeries, in short, everything that was of service
to the Jewish community.
Many buildings were constructed around
a courtyard at the center of which, according to ancient custom, soared
a palm tree and a citrus tree, that in several cases survive even today.
Via della Giudecca in Syracuse |
The wealth of the community was evident
in the exteriors of the buildings, even if the reconstruction of the quarter
after the destruction caused by the
earthquake of 1693 gave them a strong baroque flavor that now
reveals, at least on the facades of the houses, very little of the Jewish
period.
Actually, many apparently modern buildings
have incorporated the structures of the Jewish period, as is revealed little
by little by the restoration work that was done in this part of Ortigia.
Thanks to this work the discoveries (and
surprises) are not few.
The most sensational is that of the Mikvah
or Mikweh (ritual Jewish bath).
Recent discoveries moreover made it possible to locate the space occupied by the synagogue (which was previously identified with the church of San Filippo the Apostle) in the church of San Giovanni Battista (San Giovannello), transformed into the church of the community of newly baptized who stayed put.
How to reach the Jewish quarter of Syracuse
from the Algilà
Ortigia Charme Hotel.
The former Jewish quarter (Giudecca) of
Syracuse is situated a few hundred meters / feet from the Hotel Algilà.
For this reason one is advised to reach it by foot, following the streets that still maintain, after more than two millennia, the "comb teeth" structure given to the city by the Greek architects.
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