The Spanish Synagogue in Prague

There are times when things certainly don’t pan out as you plan them. For instance I had started preparing this post and was going to finish it up and publish at the beginning of the week before leaving for Montreal. Unfortunately I got sick on Christmas Day with what I thought was a cold but end up turning into bronchitis. so needless to say…no blog post…no Montreal.

I still have a few images of Prague that I wanted to share with you. One of things that my husband and I did (and I highly recommend) was a 1/2 day private tour of the old Jewish Quarter. Really we should have done the full day but we had a train to catch back to Vienna.

We knew that there was so much history and so much to learn that hiring a private tour guide was the best way to make the most of our time. I’ll be sharing my images of the Jewish Quarter in the next few posts but during this tour I wasn’t the “photographer” trying to get the shot but rather a tourist learning about what took place here.

This is the Spanish Synagogue which is the “newest” synagogue in Prague built 1868. It was actually built on the site of the oldest synagogue, the “Altshul” built-in the 12th century in the Prague ghetto.

It’s called the Spanish Synagogue because of its interior Moorish design and architecture.

While it’s still a functioning synagogue it’s part of the Jewish Museum of Prague and houses an impressive exhibit on the History of the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia.

I wish I had more pictures of this beautiful place but I had to be stealth with my photography. I got warned more than once (in different locales) that photography was not allowed.  The reason being they wanted you to buy the postcards.