The Sinagoga di Roma (the Tempio Maggiore. Lungotevere dei Cenci, in the Roman Ghetto, 500m south of the Pantheon) is the principal synagogue of the Jewish community of Rome, the oldest continuous Jewish community in Europe and one of the oldest in the entire diaspora: the Roman Jews (the community established in Rome before the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD, the community that the Arch of Titus on Via Sacra commemorates in the specific triumphal frieze showing the Menorah carried in the Roman triumph) have lived in Rome for approximately 2,100 years, making the Roma Jewish community the longest-surviving Jewish community outside the Middle East and the specific community whose Judeo-Roman tradition (the Romaniot rite, the specific Roman Jewish liturgy that predates the Ashkenazi and Sephardic rites and that the Roman community has maintained through two millennia of Roman history) is the oldest surviving form of Jewish religious practice in the world.
The Ghetto history: the Roman Jewish Ghetto (the enclosed quarter established by Pope Paul IV in 1555 with the bull Cum nimis absurdum, the papal decree that confined the Roman Jewish community to a specific walled area on the Tiber bank, the area that remained walled and gated for 315 years until 1870 when the Italian army entered Rome and the new Italian state abolished the Ghetto): the specific Ghetto topography (the narrow lanes between Lungotevere dei Cenci and the Porticus of Octavia, the ancient Roman monument incorporated into the medieval Ghetto fabric) and the specific Roman Jewish food tradition (the carciofi alla giudia, the baccalà in agrodolce, and the other Judeo-Roman dishes that the Ghetto cooking tradition developed) are the specific cultural legacy of the 315-year Ghetto period.
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Sinagoga di Roma: Visit, Museum, and Ghetto
The Tempio Maggiore
The Tempio Maggiore (the 1904 synagogue built after the demolition of the Ghetto walls, the eclectic-baroque building whose square plan with the distinctive aluminium dome (the specific dome that distinguishes the Sinagoga from the Catholic church domes that otherwise dominate the Roman skyline) was designed by Vincenzo Costa and Osvaldo Armanni as a deliberate architectural statement of the Jewish community's new freedom in the post-Ghetto period): accessible through the Museo Ebraico di Roma (the Jewish museum in the basement of the synagogue, open Sunday-Friday 10:00-18:00 summer, 10:00-17:00 winter. Admission approximately €11 adults including the guided synagogue visit. Museobraico.roma.it for the current schedule). The tour of the synagogue interior (the guided visit that covers the main temple, the smaller Spanish temple in the basement, and the museum): the tour includes the specific architectural explanation of the Tempio's eclectic program and the museum's documentation of the Roman Jewish history from the Republican period to the 1943 deportations.
The Roman Ghetto Food
The Ghetto food experience (the Judeo-Roman restaurants in the Ghetto quarter. Via del Portico d'Ottavia that concentrates the specific Jewish food tradition): the carciofi alla giudia (the "Jewish-style" artichokes, the whole artichoke flattened and fried in olive oil until the outer leaves are crisp and the inner heart is tender, the specific Ghetto dish that the Roman Jewish cooking tradition contributed to the broader Roman cuisine): served at the Piperno, the Nonna Betta, and other Ghetto quarter restaurants, the specific Roman Jewish lunch experience available at the walking distance from the synagogue.
Q&A: Sinagoga di Roma
Is there a dress code for visiting the Sinagoga di Roma?
Modest dress is required for the synagogue visit (shoulders covered, no shorts or short skirts): the standard religious site dress code that applies. Kipot (head coverings for men) are provided at the entrance for the synagogue visit. Photography inside the synagogue and the museum is permitted (without flash) in the museum areas. Photography during any active religious service isn't permitted. The Sinagoga visit is accessible on any day the museum is open, with the guided tour of the synagogue interior included in the museum admission.
Internal Links
- Roma Ebraica: La Comunità più Antica d'Europa
- Cucina Giudaico-Romana: Il Carciofo alla Giudia
- Museo Ebraico Roma: Orari e Prezzi 2026
- Roma in Inverno: Il Ghetto e la Sinagoga
- Fotografare il Ghetto di Roma: Porticus e Cupola
- Ghetto Romano: Il Quartiere più Antico di Roma
- Roma del '600: Dal Ghetto ai Palazzi Barocchi
