Maisel Synagogue

The Maisel Synagogue (Maiselova synagoga) was built in 1592 by Mordecai Maisel — the mayor of Prague's Jewish Town and one of the wealthiest men in the city under Emperor Rudolf II — as the grandest private synagogue in the ghetto. Originally a Renaissance temple with three naves, it was destroyed in the great ghetto fire of 1689, rebuilt twice, and given its current Neo-Gothic form by architect Alfred Grotte between 1893 and 1905. Today it functions as a museum rather than an active synagogue, housing the permanent exhibition Jews in the Bohemian Lands, 10th–18th Century — the ideal starting point for understanding the history of Prague's Jewish community before visiting the other Josefov sites. The exhibition includes rare Judaica, interactive touchscreens with Hebrew manuscripts, and an animated visualization of Langweil's famous model showing the Jewish Quarter as it looked before its near-total demolition in the 1890s.