The Great Synagogue of Florence

(This is part of our series of posts from our six-week Road Scholar Independent Living and Learning in Florence trip to Italy in Spring 2025. We have an index to all the posts from that trip here.)

After our language classes in the morning, we met Suzy and Doug for lunch and then toured the Florence Synagogue and Museum.

Jews were first recorded in Florence in the 12th century, but the first real community formed after 1437 when the Jews were allowed to open lending banks in the city. The Jewish community flourished during the reign of Lorenzo the Magnificent, who protected them; however, that era of security ended with his death in 1492. In 1570, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo I, ordered the Jews of Florence to live in a separate quarter of the city called the Ghetto. The Jews were temporarily emancipated from the Ghetto during the French Napoleonic occupation, but were not permanently freed until after the unification of Italy in the 1860s.

Many Jews of Florence fell fighting in the Italian army during World War I, but many, many more were victims of World War II and the Holocaust. Starting in September 1943, entire Jewish families, both Italian and foreign, were deported. Nobody, including children and the elderly, was spared. Eventually, more than 400 Tuscan Jews were taken to Auschwitz. Only a few survived to return home.

Since then, the Orthodox Jewish community of Florence has re-established itself, and today it has about 1,000 members.

The Great Synagogue of Florence was built between 1874 and 1882. The building is made of travertine and pink pomato stone, in the Italian and Moorish Revival style. The green copper-covered central dome, designed to echo the great Duomo built by Brunelleschi, is an unmistakable feature of the Florentine skyline.

Etched glass doors into the sanctuary, flanked by elaboarately decorated walls.

Entryway into the sanctuary.

Inside the sanctuary of the Great Synagogue of Florence.

Marble inlaid floor of the sanctuary.

The Holy Ark, Ner Tamid (eternal light), and bimah of the sanctuary. During services, the torah scroll is opened on the bimah table and the rabbi reads verses from it to the congregation.

One of the stained glass windows in the sanctuary.

Ceiling of the sanctuary. Almost every vertical and horizontal surface in the sanctuary is adorned in the same way.

Looking up into the cupola (inside the main dome) of the sanctuary.

In the foyer, there is a Star of David in a mosaic of black and yellow marble, from the Matir Assurim confraternity in the old ghetto. Matir Assurim (Hebrew, which translates to “the one who frees captives” in English) is an organization that connects current and former incarcerated Jews with spiritual, cultural and communal resources.

The Jewish Museum, also housed in the Great Synagogue building, documents the history of the Jews in Florence and displays religious and ceremonial objects, like this mid-18th-century Torah scroll.

After a short rest and another dinner together with Suzy and Doug, of course there was gelato–this one at a new-to-us gelateria in Piazza Santo Spirito called La Sorbettiera. Their fondente (dark chocolate) was one of the best ones we’ve had.