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Jewish Museum of Pitigliano
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| Address:
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Vicolo Marghera, and via Zuccarelli
- Pitigliano |
| Telephone:
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+39.0564614230  |
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Website:
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Open: |
Daily |
Opening Hours: |
Winter (1 october - 31 march) 10 AM - 12 AM, 3 PM - 5 PM.
Summer (1 april - 30 september) 10 AM - 1 PM, 2:30 PM - 6 PM.
Closed on Saturday and Jewish Holidays. |
Price: |
€4, reduced price of €3 for groups, students, children and elderly.
Free entrance to the press, tour guides, invalids and children under 6. |
Hotels within 15 min. Walking Distance: |
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The Museum is located the antique Ghetto, besides the Synagogue it includes:
1) RITUAL BATHS
Rooms used by women for purification bathing (“miqvè” means “collected” water) at the end of each menstrual cycle, before marriage and after a birth. The bathtubs (of which there are only remains) were filled with rainwater than flowed from an opening in the tufa wall. The large wells were used as reservoirs for water.
2) WINE CELLER
In the past kosher wine was made in this cellar (“kosher” means fit for consumption, since it is produced according to Jewish tradition).
No additives which contain casein may be used in the winemaking process. Jewish tradition forbids the consumption of wine with meat or dairy-based dishes; a wine that contains should not be drunk with a meat dish. Wines are pasteurised at higher temperatures than usual. The wine-making process is supervised from the moment the grapes are picked through to the bottling of the wine.
3) MUSEUM OF JEWISH CULTURE
It is said that the first school and religious centre was established in this room when the Jews first settled in Pitigliano. The Synagogue of “Leone di Sabato” as built above this room in 1598. Its collection of objects on display relate to the Jewish faith. The museum is home to murals depicting solemn and joyful aspects of the Jewish faith.
4) KOSHER BUTCHER
Poultry and split-hoof animals such as sheep, goats, cattle and deer were slaughtered here by a shochet (butcher), according to Jewish custom. The technique slits the animal’s neck arteries with a clean and very rapid blow; the flow of blood deprives the brain of oxygen and the animal instantly loses consciousness, with minimal suffering. According to Jewish faith, “blood is life” and is therefore forbidden in the Jewish diet.
5) THE UNLEAVENED BREAD BAKERY
Used exclusively for the baking of unleavened bread and Passover pastries, for the consumption of the whole community during the 8 days of Passover. Only open once a year. It was last used in Passover 1939 before racial laws interrupted the Jewish way of life.
6) DYE HOUSE
The remains of basins are evidence that this room was used as a dye house. Note on the right of the entrance there is a slot positioned at an angle in which here acted as a door jam, was a rolled-up piece of parchment (placed in a holder) on which the passage of Deuteronomy 6, 4-9 (“Listen Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is a…”) and other verses from the Bible were written. |
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Map
of Jewish Museum of Pitigliano
Photo
of Jewish Museum of Pitigliano
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