Self-guided City Walk Josefov Jewish Heritage Prague

Josefov, Prague’s Jewish quarter, is wedged between the Vltava River and Old Town Square. It was once home to one of the oldest and most important Jewish communities in Western Europe. Over the centuries, Jews were banished and then again tolerated. From the end of the sixteenth century, a golden age dawned for the Jews. Emperor Rudolf II granted them more and more privileges, greater freedom of science and trade.

In the course of the nineteenth century, the quarter had grown into a maze of alleys with 40,000 residents. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the ghetto was redeveloped and a district with wide boulevards emerged. During the Nazi period, many Jews were deported to extermination camps. However, the Jewish monuments in Josefov were spared because Hitler wanted to turn this district into an ‘exotic museum of an extinct race’.

City Walk Josefov quarter :Jewish Prague

START and FINISH: the corner of Kaprova and 17 Listopadú street. (Underground station Staroměstská)
LENGTH: 2 kilometers
DURATION: If you also visit the Jewish Museum, you will need a full morning or afternoon.

During the walk through Josefov you walk through the Jewish quarter. On the way you can visit the Jewish Museum. The walk ends Staroměstská metro station where you get on the metro to go to the New Jewish Cemetery.

TIP: A combination ticket for the Jewish Museum gives access to the five synagogues, the Jewish cemetery and the ceremonial hall.

1. The walk starts at the corner of Kaprova and 17 Listopadu Street.
The building diagonally in front of you is the Rudolfinum and the square in front of it is Jan Palach Square. In communist days this square was called: Red Army Soldiers’ Square, but in 1989 it was named after the famous martyr of the Prague Spring: Jan Palach, who set himself on fire in 1969 in protest against the occupation of his country by the Warsaw Pact troops.

The Rudolfinum, home of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, is named after Rudolf of Habsburg, Archduke of Austria. This orchestra gave its first concert here in 1896 under the direction of Antonín Dvořák, composer, conductor, music teacher, violist and organist. Works by Dvořák are still performed in the Rudolfinum. The Dvořák Hall hosts concerts during the Prague Spring International Music Festival.

From 1918 to 1938, the Rudolfinum housed the Czechoslovak parliament. In 1938, the building was closed by order of the Nazis. One of the busts on the balustrade had to be removed because it depicted the Jewish composer Felix Mendelssohn. Since it was not entirely clear which of the statues was Mendelssohn, it was decided to remove the one with the largest nose. It turned out to be Richard Wagner, Hitler’s favourite composer.

2. Turn right onto 17 Listopadū Street and then the first street on the right: Široká.

The building on your right at 17 Listopadū Street is part of Charles University.

At number 8 is King Solomon, the oldest kosher restaurant in Prague and the Czech Republic. The cuisine is based on Eastern European cuisine, Ashkenaz style: a cold-climate cuisine that has many similarities with typical Czech food, but then kosher.

At number 3 is the Pinkas Synagogue, the memorial to the 77,297 Czech and Slovak Jews who died during the Holocaust. The names of the victims, with their date of birth and the day of transport to the extermination camps, are inscribed on the interior walls.

3. Via the Pinkas synagogue you reach the old Jewish cemetery.
If you do not visit the Jewish Museum, continue Široká, turn left into Maiselova, turn left into U Starého hřbitova with the Klausen synagogue

It is almost unbelievable, but there are 12,000 gravestones in the relatively small Old Jewish Cemetery. The Jewish religion forbids the clearing of graves, which is why the dead were buried here in many layers on top of each other.

The oldest grave dates from 1439, making this cemetery the oldest in Europe. The last burials were here at the end of the eighteenth century. The new cemetery was in the Žižkov district, in the shadow of the television tower, and from the beginning of the twentieth century the New Jewish Cemetery in the Vinohrady district was and still is used.

The most famous grave is that of Rabbi Jehuda Loew Ben Bazalele who died in 1609, a great scholar who, according to legend, invented the golem, a giant made of clay who lives in the ghetto and watches over the safety of the Jews.

Walking along the narrow paths, you will see notes and pebbles on many graves. It is an old Jewish custom to make contact with the spirits of the ancestors through notes and pebbles. The notes contain wishes to be fulfilled.

4. Leave the cemetery at the Ceremonial Hall and the Klausen Synagogue. You are now in U Starého hřbitova.

The ceremonial hall served as a hall for the Chevrah Kaddishah, the burial brotherhood that took care of the funeral ceremonies, ritual cleansing, funerals and care for the bereaved. The permanent exhibition about the Prague Burial Brotherhood is divided into several rooms. On display are utensils, clothing, books and pictures.

The Klausen Synagogue was built at the end of the seventeenth century to replace three small buildings or Klausen (German for small building). One of the Klausen was the former Talmud school of Rabbi Loew. The Klausen Synagogue is part of the Jewish Museum in Prague. Hebrew manuscripts are exhibited here.

The street U Starého hřbitova is full of stalls selling Jewish souvenirs – yarmulkes, and lots of souvenirs with a picture of the golem.

5. Continue Starého hřbitova to Maiselova.

Straight in front is the Jewish Town Hall. This is unique as there is no other ghetto in the world that has or had its own town hall or could elect its own mayor. At the end of the seventeenth century, the Jewish community in Prague was also given the privilege of building a clock tower on the town hall because they had actively fought on the Charles Bridge against the Swedes in 1648. The town hall building in late Baroque style has a striking green spire with a clock tower. On one of the facades is a clock with Hebrew letters, the hands of which turn from right to left.

To the left of the town hall is the Old New Synagogue – a house of prayer for over 700 years and the oldest synagogue still in use in Europe. The interior is well worth a visit: bronze chandeliers, an impressive pulpit and a magnificent Torah ark.

6. Turn right into Maiselova.

At number 10 is Maiselova Synagogue, was financed by Mordechai Maisel, the first mayor and one of the richest people in Prague. This house of prayer was the largest synagogue in Prague until a large part of the ghetto and also the synagogue were burned to ashes in the mid-nineteenth century. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Maisel Synagogue was rebuilt in neo-Gothic style. During the German occupation, it was the storage place for confiscated Jewish property. As part of the Jewish Museum in Prague, the permanent exhibition shows the history of the Jews in Bohemia.

7. Walk back along Maiselova, turn right into Červená Street and turn right into Pařížská Street.

At number 4 in Červená Street is the High Synagogue, which was built at the end of the sixteenth century at the expense of Mordechai Maisel, one of the richest people in Prague. He was a moneylender by profession, not only the nobility but also Emperor Rudolf II borrowed money from him. ‘High’ has two meanings: the prayer room is on the second floor and in earlier times only rich Jews were allowed to pray here. The High Synagogue is not part of the Jewish Museum in Prague and can only be visited on request, because prayer services are held in this synagogue.

Mordechai Maisel was mayor of the Jewish community in the sixteenth century and a wealthy man. He was Emperor Rudof’s moneylender. The Emperor needed money for the fight against the Turks. Maisel also funded the construction of the Jewish Town Hall, the Talmud School and paved Maiselova Street so that no one would get muddy feet when they went to the synagogue on Shabbat.

Pařížská is a chic and expensive shopping street. Here you will find luxury fashion houses like Armani, Burberry, Fabergé, Boss, Chanel, Hermès, Vuitton and- stylish cafés, bars and restaurants. The side streets are the domain of boutiques of Czech fashion designers such as Hana Havelková and Klára Nademlýnská.

8. Take the first street on the left: Široká and continue until you reach a small square.

The church on your left is the fourteenth-century Church of the Holy Spirit. In the middle of the sixteenth century Jews were obliged to attend Holy Mass here.

Diagonally behind the church is the Spanish Synagogue, which owes its name to the Sephardic Jews who came to Prague in the sixteenth century to escape the Spanish Inquisition. The current building with many arches and domes dates from the second half of the nineteenth century and is strongly reminiscent of the Spanish Alhambra. Every inch of the Moorish interior is richly decorated in shades of red and green and lots of gold.

The synagogue is now a museum and the permanent exhibition is dedicated to the history of the Jews in Bohemia and Moravia from the end of the eighteenth century to the Holocaust. Much attention is paid to Jewish writers in the Czech Republic.

On the small square in front of the Spanish Synagogue stands a strange bronze statue. A small figure, probably Franz Kafka, sitting on the shoulders of a headless and armless giant dressed in a large overcoat. The idea is derived from one of Kafka’s stories; ‘Beschreibung eines Kampfes’. The Kafka monument commemorates the 120th anniversary of Kafka’s birth in 2003.

9. Take Dušní Street, cross Dlouhá, walk straight ahead, you are now in Týnská ulička. Turn right into Týnská.

You are now on Old Town Square. This square is a crash course in sightseeing and history. In the middle of the square stands the monument to John Hus, preacher and critic of the Catholic Church. The statue was unveiled in 1915 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Hus’ martyrdom.

The towers of the Church of Our Lady before Týn, decorated with spires, turrets and pinnacles, are clearly visible from the square. The two 80-metre-high towers are not symmetrical and represent the feminine and masculine sides of the world, a characteristic of medieval Gothic architecture. Legend has it that the Church of Our Lady before Týn inspired Walt Disney when he drew the castle for Sleeping Beauty.

The main attraction on the Old Town Square is the Astronomical Clock on the facade of the Town Hall. In addition to the time, the clock also shows the days, the sidereal time and the position of the moon and the sun. Every hour on the hour you can watch a spectacle that lasts less than a minute: Vanity admires herself in a mirror, Miser clutches a bag of gold under his arm, Death pulls a cord and a Turk shakes his head. A hatch opens and the twelve apostles walk around, then the hatch closes again.

Old Town Square is always pleasantly busy. During the Christmas period, the Christmas market is held here and at Easter the Easter market. Furthermore, there are plenty of outdoor cafes in the summer.

10. Walk past the St. Nicholas Church to Kaprova and Staroměstská metro station. Get on the metro at Staroměstská line A and get off at Želivského metro station.

You are now opposite the New Jewish cemetery. This cemetery is in the Vinohrady district and looks completely different from the old Jewish cemetery in the city centre. No jumble of gravestones but a neatly ordered and symmetrical cemetery with gravestones in many styles from neo-Gothic to functionalism.

The most famous grave is that of the writer Franz Kafka: a hexagonal column on which the names of his father and mother are also engraved. A plaque in front of it lists the names of his three sisters who died in German concentration camps. In the wall opposite Kafka’s grave is a memorial plaque in memory of Kafka’s friend, Max Brod, whose life’s goal was to spread Kafka’s fame.

The cemetery is open from 09:00 to 16:00 and on Fridays until 14:00.

END OF THE CITY WALK

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Photos Marianne Crone