The Scolagrande Synagogue (

Judeo-Italian Judeo-Italian (or Judaeo-Italian, Judæo-Italian, and other names including Italkian) is a group of endangered and extinct Jewish dialects, with only about 200 speakers in Italy and 250 total speakers today. The dialects are one of the Italia ...

: ''Grand Synagogue'') is a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

congregation and

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

, located at Via la Giudea 24, in the town of

Trani Trani () is a seaport of Apulia, Southern Italy, on the Adriatic Sea, by railway west-northwest of Bari. It is one of the capital cities of the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani (BAT). History Overview The city of ''Turenum'' appears for the ...

Puglia Apulia ( ), also known by its Italian language, Italian name Puglia (), is a Regions of Italy, region of Italy, located in the Southern Italy, southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Ot ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. Built by the Italian–Jewish community of Apulia during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

and completed in 1247, the building was acquired by the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Church in 1380 and served as St. Anne's Church () until it was

deconsecrated Deconsecration, also referred to as decommissioning or ''secularization'' (a term also used for the external confiscation of church property), is the removal of a religious sanction and blessing from something that had been previously consec ...

and returned to the Jewish community in 2004. The building is used as a synagogue and as a

Jewish museum A Jewish museum is a museum which focuses upon Jews and may refer seek to explore and share the Jewish experience in a given area. Notable Jewish museums include: Albania * Solomon Museum, Berat Australia * Jewish Museum of Australia, Melbourn ...

, called the St. Anna Synagogue Museum (), as part of the Diocesan Museum of Trani.

History

The building was one of four synagogues in Trani converted to

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

es in 1380, when the 310 Jews remaining in the city were forcibly converted to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

. The four confiscated synagogues were renamed Santa Maria in Scolanova (now the Scolanova Synagogue), San Leonardo Abate, San Pietro Martire. San Pietro was later demolished. San Leonardo has undergone such extensive renovation that little of the synagogue building survives. Originally known as the Scolagrande Synagogue, the building was renamed '' Santi Quirico e Giovita'' after it was confiscated for use as a church, and later renamed ''Sant'Anna''. A medieval plaque on the northern wall describes an early renovation of the synagogue: "In the year 5007 after the creation, this sanctuary was built by a group of friends of the congregation, with a high decorated dome, a window providing light and new doors for the closure; the floor relaid and seats installed for the choir. May their piety be remembered before Him Who dwells in the splendid heavens." The date translates to 1247 CE. In 2004, the Roman Catholic Church deconsecrated the church and returned the former synagogue building to the Jewish community, with ownership transferred to the Jewish Community of Naples. The building has operated as a synagogue and as a Jewish museum since 2005.

Architecture

The Scolagrande Synagogue was an almost square,

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

-style domed, masonry building, , formed by four huge arched walls supporting a high dome. The arch of the western wall opens into a semi-circular niche supporting an arched dome thought to have once contained the '' bimah''. This would have been an early version of the plan later widely adopted by

Sephardic Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

synagogues in which the ''bimah'' is on the western wall and the Ark on the eastern wall separated by the length of the room. The building was renovated in 1841, in 1880 and in 1978, as a church. It features paintings of scenes from the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

.Wikipedia Italian :it:Chiesa di Sant’Anna (Trani)

References

External links

* {{Synagogues in Italy 13th-century synagogues in Italy Buildings and structures in Trani Byzantine architecture in Italy Byzantine synagogues Churches converted from synagogues Medieval synagogues Synagogues in Trani Synagogues preserved as museums

History

Architecture

See also

References

External links