OLD-NEW SYNAGOGUE (STARONOVÁ SYNAGOGA)
This synagogue is the oldest in Europe. Built in 1270, in Gothic style, it has a simple and bare volume, with two brick gables that hide a very steep roof. Its entrance, excavated, corresponds to the old street level. Its strange name is due to history. It was originally called New, but another one by that name was born right next door, hence the change to the Old-New Synagogue. It survived all the disasters of the Jewish city, fires, floods, and the sanitation of the district at the end of the 19th century. We go down a few narrow steps into a first room with 17th century crates that were used to keep the money collected by the tax authorities. The synagogue is composed of two naves separated by two pillars. In the middle, the pulpit raised with a wrought iron gate in flamboyant 15th century Gothic. Notice the strange small narrow windows in the walls, which separate the main hall (17th and 18th centuries) from the women's galleries. Not being allowed to attend the ceremonies alongside the men, they followed the cult through these tiny slits. Banner, symbol of the independence of the Jewish community at the beginning of the 14th century, is one of the objects that attract attention. She wears a star of David with a hat in the middle, an accessory whose wearing was made mandatory for the inhabitants of the district in the 14th century.
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D'après la légende, le corps du Golem y reposerait.