Where is the Jewish Ghetto in Rome? Located a stone\u2019s throw from Piazza Venezia and Capitoline Hill, this neighborhood couldn\u2019t be more central.\u00a0 The Jewish Ghetto is bordered by Via delle Botteghe Oscure (on the north), Via Arenula (west), the river (south), and Via del Teatro di Marcello (east). Hidden in the heart of the city, the Jewish Ghetto\u00a0 is one of the things to see in\u00a0Rome and also one of its least-known.\u00a0\u00a0For an area that abounds in beautiful architecture, the Jewish quarter is often neglected by visitors who come to Rome for its classical landmarks.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Visit the Jewish Ghetto<\/a> with us\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The history of Jews in\u00a0Rome\u00a0follows all the drastic twists and horrifying turns that have shaped the experience of the Jewish diaspora across the world.\u00a0Rome has one of the oldest, continually surviving Jewish communities outside the Holy Land. The first ghetto was the Venetian ghetto, formed in 1516, while Rome’s was the world’s second, established in 1555 and its borders were laid down in a\u00a0Papal Bull along with various discriminatory laws about what professions Jews could and could not hold.\u00a0The land chosen for Roman ghetto was among the worst in the city.\u00a0 Since the Tiber regularly flooded, the lower parts of the ghetto were regularly underwater.\u00a0 The Jewish Ghetto was walled-in and crowded and life was grim until the Ghetto walls were torn down in 1888.<\/p>\n

Jewish culture grew and thrived in the Roman Ghetto, but the neighborhood also witnessed one of the most heart-wrenching episodes of the Nazi occupation during the Second World War. After the German government proclaimed that Rome\u2019s Jews would be spared deportation to the concentration camps if a gold ransom was paid, many in the city, including The Vatican, donated their gold. Even though the Jewish community\u00a0raised the required amount, Nazi soldiers entered the neighborhood on October 16th, 1943 and deported between 1,000 and 2,000 people. Only 16 survived.<\/p>\n

Situated just across from the Tiber Island on the east bank of the river, today the area is a haven of tranquillity in the <\/a>traffic maelstrom that is Rome.\u00a0 Over the years the area has grown into a beautiful neighborhood filled with restaurants, churches, and synagogues that combine\u00a0jewish culture with the grandeur of Roman architecture. The ruins of the enormous ancient Portico, the Portico d\u2019Ottavia, rise from under 20 feet below street level, at once a testament to history as well as the changes time brings.<\/p>\n

There are\u00a0lots of different cool things to do and see \u2013 an ancient market and theatre, an impressive synagogue, a lot of tasty restaurants (artichokes!), a postcard perfect fountain and much much more. So, we\u2019ve compiled the following neighborhood bucket list for you to tick off when you visit the Rome Jewish Ghetto.<\/p>\n

Teatro Marcello<\/strong><\/p>\n

Named after Marcus Marcellus, Emperor Augustus\u2019s nephew, who died five years before its completion, the Teatro was begun by Julius Caesar and completed by Augustus in 13 BC. It\u2019s also known as the Jewish Coliseum for its resemblance to the original Colosseum. This ancient, open-air theater once held\u00a0approximately 11,000 to 20,000 spectators, and the seats filled for acting, dancing or singing performances. Today it still holds different shows throughout the summer.<\/p>\n

The Great Synagogue<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Great Synagogue of Rome, or the\u00a0Tempio Maggiore di Romain Italian, is the largest synagogue in all of Rome and possibly all of<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0Italy. This impressive building is pretty new by Roman standards.\u00a0After\u00a0people of Jewish faith\u00a0were granted citizenship during Italian unification in 1870, the original ghetto synagogue was torn down and plans for the Great Synagogue began. The cornerstone was laid in 1901 and the Synagogue was officially completed in 1904, a veritable baby in\u00a0the Roman skyline.<\/p>\n

Jewish Museum of Rome<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Jewish Museum is located in the Great Synagogue. Opened underneath the Great Synagogue in 1960, it displays silverware and textiles, parchments and marble carvings from the collections of the Jewish Community of Rome. It tells the history of the Jews and the Jewish G<\/p>\n

hetto in Rome.<\/p>\n

The Fontane delle Tartarughe<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Turtle Fountain is a late Renaissance fountain. Though it might have been called the Dolphin Fountain, as it once had dolphins where the turtles now sit, they were removed because of low water pressure, and the turtles were added to make the fountain seem complete. Originally built as a drinking fountain, the water was sourced from the Acqua Vergine, one of Rome\u2019s first aqueducts \u2013 a big deal for sixth century Romans!<\/p>\n

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Where is the Jewish Ghetto in Rome? Located a stone\u2019s throw from Piazza Venezia and Capitoline Hill, this neighborhood couldn\u2019t be more central.\u00a0 The Jewish Ghetto is bordered by Via delle Botteghe Oscure (on the north), Via Arenula (west), the river (south), and Via del Teatro […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[74],"tags":[71,77,83,81,86,79,78,80,85,75,82,76,84],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1404"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1586,"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404\/revisions\/1586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}