Josefov - The Rough Guide to Prague - page 142

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Židovská radnice (Jewish Town Hall)
Maiselova 18 • Sun-Fri: Nov-March 9am-4.30pm; April-Oct 9am-6pm • Jewish Museum tickets 300Kč/
480Kč • Metro Staroměstská
Just south of the Staronová synagoga stands the Židovská radnice , one of the few such
buildings in Europe to survive the Holocaust. Founded and funded as a town hall by Maisel
in the sixteenth century, it was later rebuilt as the creamy-pink Rococo building you see now,
andtodayhousestheofficesofPrague'sJewishcommunity.Thebelfry,permissionforwhose
constructionwasgrantedbyFerdinandIII,hasaclockoneachofitsfoursides,plusaHebrew
clock stuck on the north gable which, like the Hebrew script, goes “backwards”. Adjacent to
the town hall is the Vysoká synagoga (High Synagogue), whose dour grey facade belies its
rich interior; it's now one of only two synagogues in Josefov still used for religious services
and is normally closed to the public.
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Maiselova synagoga
Maiselova8•Sun-Fri:Nov-March9am-4.30pm;April-Oct9am-6pm• JewishMuseumtickets 300Kč/480Kč
• Metro Staroměstská
Founded and paid for entirely by Mordecai Maisel, the neo-Gothic Maiselovasynagoga , set
backfromtheneighbouringhousesonMaiselova,was,initsday,oneofthemostornatesyn-
agogues in Josefov. Nowadays, its bare, whitewashed, turn-of-the-twentieth-century interior
housesanexhibitiononthehistoryoftheCzech-Jewishcommunityupuntilthe1781Edictof
Tolerance.Alongwithglasscabinetsfilledwithgoldandsilverwork,Hanukkahcandlesticks,
Torah scrolls and other religious artefacts, there's also one of the antiquated Renaissance-era
ruffs that had to be worn by all unmarried males from the age of 12, and a copy of Ferdinand
I's 1551 decree enforcing the wearing of a circular yellow badge.
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Pinkasova synagoga
Široká 3 • Sun-Fri: Nov-March 9am-4.30pm; April-Oct 9am-6pm • Jewish Museum tickets 300Kč/480Kč •
Metro Staroměstská
Jutting out at an angle on the south side of the Old Jewish Cemetery with its entrance on
Široká, the Pinkasova synagoga was built in the 1530s for the powerful Horovitz family,
and has undergone countless restorations over the centuries. In 1958, it was transformed into
a chilling memorial to the 77,297 Czech Jews killed during the Holocaust. The memorial
was closed shortly after the 1967 Six Day War - due to damp, according to the Commun-
ists - and remained so, allegedly because of problems with the masonry, until it was finally
painstakingly restored in the 1990s. All that remains of the synagogue's original decor today