Jewish Quarter Guided Walking Tour with Synagogue Tickets Prague

Josefov, the Jewish Quarter of Prague

Josefov is the former Jewish Town of Prague, squeezed between Old Town Square and the Vltava. Jews lived here from the Middle Ages, walled into a crowded ghetto, and the quarter took its present name from Emperor Joseph II, whose reforms in the 1780s eased the restrictions on the community. Most of the old lanes were cleared around 1900 and replaced by the Art Nouveau boulevards you see today, but the synagogues, the cemetery and the Jewish Town Hall survived and form one of the best-preserved Jewish heritage sites in Europe.

Your guide begins at Maiselova 5, in the middle of the quarter, with the story of how the community lived, traded and prayed here for centuries. A Prague Jewish Quarter tour with a specialist guide turns a row of buildings into a single narrative, from medieval times through the Holocaust to the community of today.

Maisel Synagogue

The first stop is the Maisel Synagogue, built in 1592 by the mayor of the Jewish Town who financed much of the ghetto's construction, and rebuilt in neo-Gothic style at the end of the nineteenth century. Today it houses the exhibition on the history of Jews in the Bohemian lands from the tenth to the eighteenth century, with silver ritual objects, manuscripts and a model of the old ghetto.

Spending about 25 minutes here with your guide gives the background for everything that follows: the privileges and persecutions, the trades the community was allowed to practise and the great figures of the Renaissance ghetto. The synagogue is a short walk from the office, and because your ticket is included you walk straight in past the ticket line.

Pinkas Synagogue and the Old Jewish Cemetery

The Pinkas Synagogue, founded in 1535, is the most moving site on the route. Its walls are inscribed with the names, birth dates and dates of death of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust from Bohemia and Moravia, written by hand in rows that cover every surface. Upstairs is the exhibition of drawings made by children in the Terezín ghetto during the war. Your guide explains the memorial quietly and leaves time to read the walls.

From the synagogue you enter the Old Jewish Cemetery, used from the first half of the fifteenth century until 1787. Because the community was not allowed to expand it, graves were laid in layers and the tombstones crowd together under the trees at every angle. The guide points out the most important graves, including that of the rabbi associated with the legend of the Golem, and explains the symbols carved on the stones.

Old-New Synagogue

The Old-New Synagogue dates from around 1270 and is the oldest synagogue in Europe still in use for services. Its early Gothic twin-nave hall, the medieval iron grille around the reading platform and the banner of the community hang almost unchanged after seven centuries. Men cover their heads inside, and paper head coverings are provided at the entrance.

Legend says the Golem, the clay figure created to protect the ghetto, rests in the synagogue's attic, and your guide tells the story in the place where it was born. The Old-New Synagogue is run separately from the other sites, which is why many visitors find it confusing to buy tickets on their own; on this tour it is included and the guided visit takes about 25 minutes.

Spanish Synagogue

The tour ends at the Spanish Synagogue, built in 1868 on the site of the oldest prayer house in the quarter. It is named after the Moorish Revival style of its interior: every wall, arch and dome is covered with gilded and painted arabesques inspired by the palaces of southern Spain, with stained glass and a richly decorated ark. It is widely considered the most beautiful synagogue interior in Prague.

The exhibition inside continues the story of the Jewish community from the nineteenth century to the present, including the emancipation, the cultural life of the city before the war and the renewal after 1989. Your guide finishes here, close to the Old Town Square, so you can continue into the Old Town or return to the river at your own pace after about two and a half hours.