Italy: interactive maps of Jewish heritage sites

Italy’s Foundation for Jewish Cultural Heritage has launched two interactive maps of heritage sites in the “Belpaese”.

fonte AEPJ.org

One map pinpoints a variety of sites and provides basic information.

Another map provides more detailed information on “unmissable” sites in and around a handful of towns and cities — Venice, Florence, Rome, Bologna, Casale Monferrato, Monte San Savino, Siena and Trieste.

The project is a work in progress designed to include ever more information on the synagogues, Jewish cemeteries, former ghettos and Jewish quarters, mikvahs and other sites of Jewish heritage found in all parts of Italy.

The maps will become part of the European Routes of Jewish Heritage project of the AEPJ, or European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Culture and Heritage.

Source: Jewish Heritage Europe, July 2015

Italy has the oldest diaspora in Europe. Jews have been living here continuously for more than 2200 years. They settled all over the peninsula in different periods, leaving behind an artistic legacy that forms an important part of the Italian cultural heritage. Around seventy synagogues were built between the Middle Ages and the 19th century, and two in Roman times. Jewish museums across Italy safeguard precious objects, furnishings, books, tombstones and steles, and documents from every era.