Synagogue, Pesaro | Hours, exhibitions and artworks on Artsupp

The Synagogue of Pesaro has long been considered to be of the Spanish or Sephardi rite and it was believed that it was founded by Semitic exiles who arrived first in Ancona and, after the restrictions of July 1555, in Pesaro, where the Jewish community lived a period of peace, protected by Dukes Guidobaldo II and Francesco Maria II Della Rovere.

Recent studies have ascertained that the Sephardi Synagogue was located in via delle Scuole but was demolished in 1957 because it was unusable after the 1930 earthquake. The information is confirmed in the Gregorian Cadastre in which the two synagogues are clearly indicated: "house for use by the Spanish School" and "Italian School with two shops for rent". Built in the sixteenth century and transformed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the latter is inserted into the urban fabric of the ghetto without any signs of particular distinction for safety reasons.

In reality, in via delle Zucchette there was also another synagogue of the Italian rite - the oldest of the three - which was closed for worship with the establishment of the ghetto (after the devolution of the Duchy of Urbino to the State of the Church) since it was from its enclosure; it will probably be demolished in the mid-twentieth century.

On the simple facade that characterizes the exterior of the Synagogue, there are two doors: a larger one for men and a smaller one for women. On the ground floor you can still admire the oven for cooking unleavened bread, the tub for the purification baths and the well. Ph. Credit: Alessandro Giampaoli