Agenda

Synagogues, architectures of memory

Lithographs by Dora Szampanier

From April 6th to October 3rd, 2023

Museu d'Història dels Jueus

In Girona, the last synagogue, which worked between 1435 and 1492, was placed where the Museum of Jewish History is now located. The synagogue was a fundamental space for Jewish life. It was the place where the community met, not only to carry out Jewish ritual and prayer, but, above all, to learn and debate around religious texts. That is why, in Catalan documents, synagogues are called "schools".

Synagogues represented in the lithographs had been landmarks in the landscape of many cities. They were an architectural and cultural heritage, but they were destroyed, or transformed for other uses. Although some photographs have been preserved and there are artworks of depicting them, most of them exist only in memory.

"Synagogues, architectures of memory" evokes those spaces that, in the past, welcomed Jewish communities from all over Europe. The exhibition follow their traces and travels, with them, the paths of a collective history and memory.