Why go
Visit Josefov to understand Prague's Jewish history through places that survived sweeping redevelopment. The Old-New Synagogue reaches back to the medieval community, while Pinkas Synagogue is a memorial to Holocaust victims. The early twentieth-century streets around them show how much of the older quarter disappeared.
What to look for
- The Gothic Old-New Synagogue stands among Josefov's surviving historic sites.
- The Old Jewish Cemetery preserves densely layered grave markers.
- Pinkas Synagogue serves as a memorial to Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
The full story
Prague's Jewish community has deep roots, but the streets you see in Josefov are not an intact medieval ghetto. Most of the old quarter was cleared during redevelopment from the late nineteenth into the early twentieth century. Several synagogues, the Old Jewish Cemetery and the Jewish Town Hall survived within a changed street plan. That contrast is central to a visit: move between a medieval building such as the Old-New Synagogue and the later façades nearby, then consider what the redevelopment erased. The surviving places also tell different stories. The cemetery records generations of community life, while Pinkas Synagogue confronts the destruction of Czech Jewish lives during the Holocaust. Give those sites the attention their subjects require. Josefov is surrounded by Old Town, so the Jewish quarter can be explored on foot alongside the square, but its history deserves more than a detour for photographs.
Useful to know
- Allow time for several sites rather than treating Josefov as one quick stop.
- Check each synagogue and museum site's current visitor arrangements before planning the order.