Prague’s Jewish Quarter should be considered an essential stop on any sightseeing itinerary of the Golden City. This former ghetto, also known as Josefov, has been in the same location since the 12th Century, when thousands of Jewish people from across Europe settled here, and the Old New Synagogue – a grand Gothic edifice still standing today – was built. Josefov has borne witness to devastating pogroms, wars, plague, fire, Nazi occupation and Communism down the centuries, though much of the area was lost to city restructuring in the early 20th Century. The surviving buildings can now be visited as part of the splendid Jewish Museum. Read on for our complete guide below.
Jewish Museum: The Lowdown
Prague’s Jewish Museum is formed of six historical monuments. These are: the Spanish Synagogue, the Pinkas Synagogue, the Maisel Synagogue, the Klausen Synagogue, the Ceremonial Hall and the Old Jewish Cemetery. Museum tickets also include entry to the Robert Guttmann Gallery but not the Old New Synagogue, which requires a separate ticket. As a whole, the museum boasts one of the largest collections of Jewish artifacts (or Judaica) on the planet. We’re talking some 40,000 objects, including textiles, prints, paintings, jewelry, and other items of Jewish ceremonial art, as well as a library of over 100,000 books from Bohemia and Moravia, some dating back as far as the 15th Century.
The museum was established in 1906, but abolished during the Nazi invasion of 1939. Chillingly, the Nazis approved the museum’s re-establishment in 1942, by way of preserving the heritage of an ‘extinct race’. The communist regime took charge in 1950 and the museum entered a long period of stasis, during which time research, preservation and exhibitions were severely restricted by the state. Happily, the museum has flourished since regaining its independence in 1994, becoming one of Prague’s most-visited attractions, with close to a million visitors every year.
Visiting The Jewish Museum
There are a variety of ways to book tickets to the Jewish Museum online. You can visit individual monuments, or pony up for a pass that covers all six monuments, plus the Robert Guttmann Gallery. One of the best ways to do it is with a Prague pass from Go City, which includes the option to visit individual or multiple monuments, as well as including stacks more Prague attractions, tours and activities, including the Old-New Synagogue (only the oldest functioning Jewish place of worship in Europe), plus Prague Castle, Vltava river cruises, Old Town walking tours and more. It’s a great way to save money if you plan to do a lot of sightseeing during your vacation. Find out more and bag your Prague pass here.
The Jewish Museum is open every day except Saturdays and Jewish holidays. Hours are generally 9AM-4.30PM between late October and late March and 9AM-6PM the rest of the time. You’ll find all the latest information on opening hours here.
Jewish Museum: Highlights
Maisel Synagogue
This neo-Gothic confection was founded in 1592 and, along with the other monuments that make up the Jewish Museum, contains rare and unique Judaica. This includes ceremonial silverware and precious medieval textiles that help to illustrate the excellent permanent exhibition about Jewish life in Bohemia between the 10th and 18th centuries.
Spanish Synagogue
The most recent of the Jewish Museum’s six monuments, the Spanish Synagogue is perhaps also the most architecturally interesting. Completed in 1868, it eschewed the centuries-old trend for the gothic and baroque, instead leaning heavily into Moorish Revival style. The result is one of the city’s most beautiful places of worship, an eye-catching neo-romantic domed edifice with stunning Moorish interiors that include soaring superb stained-glass windows and some quite extraordinary arabesque mosaic-work. The exhibition here follows on from the Maisel, detailing the Jewish experience in Czechoslovakia during the 19th and 20th centuries, and it’s well worth coming back for the atmospheric candlelit concerts in the evenings too.
Pinkas Synagogue
Built in the late Gothic style in 1535, Pinkas is the second-oldest preserved synagogue in the city, second only to the nearby Old New Synagogue. It has served as a memorial since the end of the Second World War, commemorating nearly 80,000 Bohemian and Moravian Jews murdered by the Nazis during the occupation. The victims’ names are inscribed on the walls alongside personal details and the names of their communities. There’s also a moving exhibition of drawings and paintings made by children held in the notorious Terezín Ghetto during the war.
Old Jewish Cemetery
Exit the Pinkas Synagogue into the Old Jewish Cemetery, one of the oldest and largest preserved Jewish burial sites in Europe. Founded in the 15th Century, with the final burial taking place in 1787, these expansive grounds provided the final resting place for over 100,000 souls. To wander its leafy lanes is a sobering experience, providing a haunting window into Czechia’s troubled past. Many of the remaining 12,000-or-so stones are crumbling, leaning, or otherwise illegible, but there are plenty of elaborate bas-reliefs to admire, as well as the stones of important Jewish figures including Rabbi Loew, Mordecai Maisel, and Avigdor Karo, a chief rabbi and court poet to King Wenceslas IV of Bohemia.
Klausen Synagogue
Neighboring the cemetery, the Klausen Synagogue is Prague’s largest, a great light-filled edifice in the early Baroque style. Inside, visitors can admire an impressive gilded three-tier Torah Ark and explore the exhibition about Jewish customs and traditions, including the bar mitzvah and marriage ceremonies.
Ceremonial Hall
On the other side of the cemetery gates, the Ceremonial hall is an early 20th-century addition to the museum. Built in the Romanesque Revival style, complete with pantile rooftops and a conical turret, it continues the exploration of Jewish tradition and culture, with a particular focus on customs and ceremonies linked to death and burial.
Robert Guttmann Gallery
Last but not least, you’ll find the Robert Guttmann Gallery located in a former Jewish hospital next to the Spanish Synagogue. Step inside for ever-changing exhibitions that examine Jewish culture, persecution and more via visual art, including pieces by the free-spirited 20th-century artist for whom the gallery is named, who died in the Łódź Ghetto in 1942.
More About Prague
- Complete guide to Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral
- Top 10 Prague attractions
- Things to do in Prague for a birthday
- Getting around Prague
Save on the Jewish Museum & Other Prague Top Attractions
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