Great Synagogue of Rome

The Great Synagogue of Rome stands beside the Tiber on the site of the former Jewish ghetto and is the largest synagogue in the city. After the abolition of the 1555 ghetto in 1870, the community built this historicist temple between 1901 and 1904 to designs by Vincenzo Costa and Osvaldo Armanni, in the shape of a Greek cross crowned with a square aluminum dome deliberately set apart from the round domes of Rome's churches. It is seen as the symbol of Jewish emancipation in Italy. On 13 April 1986 Pope John Paul II became the first pope since Antoninus Pius to enter a synagogue and called the Jews the elder brothers. Today the basement houses the Jewish Museum of Rome; security checks are strict, but the visit is worth it for the mosaics, stained glass and the history of Europe's oldest Jewish community.