Florence from a different point of view, that of the Jewish quarter in the city. This tour of Jewish Florence is divided into two parts: a walk through Florence’s historic center and a visit to the synagogue and its museum.

The Walking Tour: we will walk through those places in the town center where Florence’s Jewish comunity lived and evolved. At the beginning, the Jews were perfectly integrated into the city’s fabric, but with the arrival of Cosimo I de’ Medici in the middle of the 1500s, the Jews in the city center were segregated and had to live in their own quarter; they would only be fully emancipated three centuries later. We will retrace and discover the areas in the city center where the Jewish community lived and left visible proof of their history. One of these places is by necessity Piazza della Repubblica, the site of the Jewish ghetto. Then comes Piazza del Duomo (the Cathedral square) and the famous panels on Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise, whose famous panels narrate stories from the Tanakh. The tour wouldn’t be complete without a stop in Piazza della Signoria with copies of Michelangelo’s David and Donatello’s Judith and Holofernes.

The Great Jewish Synagogue in Florence is an architectural masterpiece. Its very construction and location are steeped in the history of the Jewish people in Florence, their struggles and final integration in the 19 th century. The interior of the Synagogue is imposing yet evocative, created in an ecletic, Moorish style, all the more surprising because of its stateliness and dignity.

The Museum is on the upper floors of the building, and houses fascinating and often
antique objects, used for both private and ceremonial devotion. One of the most striking examples is an 18th century Torah damaged in the 1966 flood.

To organize a guided tour, write to: info@florenceinsight.com, or call or write to the number 0039.333.6097268. Follow us! Florence Insight, Ricomincio da Firenze