Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt
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How it came to be
The Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt is three buildings in the old town of Erfurt in central Germany: the Old Synagogue, the Mikveh, or ritual bath, and the Stone House. They record how a Jewish community lived alongside a mainly Christian society in a town at a crossroads of trade routes, from the late 11th to the mid-14th century.
Tree-ring dating puts the oldest parts of the Old Synagogue at 1094. It was largely rebuilt around 1270 and extended in the early 1300s. Because its roof survives, it is thought to be the oldest intact synagogue building in the world. The Mikveh dates from around 1250 and was found by archaeologists near the Krämerbrücke in 2007.
In 1349, during the Black Death, the Jews of Erfurt were massacred and driven out. The city took the synagogue and sold it to a merchant; it served as a warehouse for about 500 years, and from the 19th century as a ballroom and a restaurant. Its forgotten past protected it in the Nazi period. The city bought it in 1998, studied and conserved it, and opened it as a museum in 2009. The property was inscribed in 2023.
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