Judenplatz, Vienna
Sign on the Judenplatz. Photo by Cher Amio.
The Holocaust Memorial in Judenplatz. Photo © Philip Greenspun.
Gathering around the Holocaust Memorial. Photo by wassman.
Detail of concrete "books" on the memorial. Photo by Robert Scarth.
The Judenplatz (Jewish Square) in Vienna was the heart of the Jewish ghetto from the 13th to the 15th centuries. It is now home to several important Jewish sights, including a Holocaust memorial, a new Jewish museum, and synagogue excavations. Altogether, Vienna's Judenplatz is a place of remembrance unique in Europe.
In the early 1990s, construction workers discovered the remains of a 13th-century synagogue while digging for a new parking garage. The medieval synagogue was one of the largest synagogues of its time.
After the pogrom in 1420 and 1421, the synagogue was systematically destroyed; only the foundations and the floor remained. The Mittelalterliche Synagogue (Medieval Synagogue) is now an archaeological exhibit and museum.
The City of Vienna Department of Urban Archaeology excavated the synagogue's ruins from 1995 to 1998. The exhibition room shows the remnants of the central room, where men studied and prayed, and a smaller room that might have been used by women. In the middle of the central room is the foundation of the hexagonal bimah (raised podium from which the Torah was read).
Above the excavations, a Holocaust Memorial was constructed to honor Austrian Jews who died in the Holocaust. Marking the outside is a rectangular concrete cube resembling library shelves, signifying the Jewish love of learning. Around the base of the monument are engraved the names of the places in which Austrian Jews were put to death during the Nazi era.
Nearby is the Museum Judenplatz, a new annex of Vienna's Jewish Museum. The museum's exhibits tell of the major role Viennese Jews played in all aspects of city life, from music to medicine, until a reign of terror began in 1938. The main section of the museum holds an exhibition on medieval Jewry in Vienna.
The exhibition features a multimedia presentation on the religious, cultural, and social life of the Viennese Jews in the Middle Ages until their expulsion and death in 1420 and 1421. The three exhibition rooms are in the basement of the Misrachi house. An underground passage connects them to the exhibitions of the medieval synagogue. The museum is open.
Near the memorial is a statue of Jewish playwright Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-81), erected after World War II.
Location map and satellite view of the Judenplatz in Vienna. Using the buttons on the left, zoom in for a closer look or zoom out to get your bearings. Click and drag the map to move around. or a larger view, see our Vienna Map or Google Earth download.
| Location: | Judenplatz, Vienna, Austria |
| Phone: | 01/535-0431 |
| U-Bahn: | U1 or U4, Schwedenplatz or Stephansplatz |
| Cost: | €3; combination ticket with Jewish Museum €7 |
