Roma Trip Overview
A route that is certainly able to offer continuous surprises is the one inside the extraordinary Jewish Ghetto, forcedly built between Largo di Torre Argentina and the Tiber. You can choose between two options: with meeting point or with pick up included.
Additional Info
Duration: 2 hours
Starts: Roma, Italy
Trip Category: Cultural & Theme Tours >> Historical & Heritage Tours
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What to Expect When Visiting Roma, Lazio, Italy
A route that is certainly able to offer continuous surprises is the one inside the extraordinary Jewish Ghetto, forcedly built between Largo di Torre Argentina and the Tiber. You can choose between two options: with meeting point or with pick up included.
Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product
Stop At: Piazza Mattei, Rome Italy
The walk can start from Piazza Mattei, the square, small and hidden, is certainly one of the most enchanting in Rome. Here there are two noble palaces, Palazzo Mattei and Palazzo Costaguti, still inhabited today by the last heirs of this important Roman family. There is a fountain placed in the center of the square, built between 1581 and 1584 by the sculptor Taddeo Landini on a design by Jacopo Della Porta, the fountain was restored in 1658 at the behest of Pope Alexander VII, the works were entrusted to Gian Lorenzo Bernini who had the idea of adding bronze turtles, which made the fountain famous with the name of Fontana delle Tartarughe. The turtles, during the course of the centuries, were repeatedly victims of theft, but fortunately they were always found and today they are kept in the Capitoline Museums, now you will see copies on the edge of the fountain. Piazza Mattei in 1800 marked the border between Christian Rome and Jewish Rome: the Mattei and the Costaguti in fact held the keys to one of the Ghetto doors, opened in the dramatic “Serraglio” located between Piazza Mattei and the beginning of Via della Reginella . Each evening, at sunset, these doors were barred to be reopened only the following morning. The Jewish Ghetto was established in 1555 by Pope Paul IV Carafa to convey the Jewish inhabitants of Rome to a single neighborhood, in order to be able to better monitor them. The population lived in a terrible, dirty and in dramatic conditions, without rights and subjecting to absurd obligations, such as not being able to go out at night, wearing colored marks on clothes to be immediately recognized or being forced to listen to the “Messe Coatte “.
Duration: 10 minutes
Stop At: Ghetto, Ghetto, Rome, Lazio
Crossing Via della Reginella which represents one of the most characteristic alleys of the Jewish Quarter, you reach the central artery of the Ghetto, Via del Portico d’Ottavia. A little further on, just past the corner, there is a small and graceful circular aedicule with white columns: it is the Carmel Temple inside which, in the past, the miraculous image of the Virgin of Carmine was kept, unfortunately now lost.
Duration: 20 minutes
Stop At: Fontana di Piazza delle Cinque Scole, Piazza Delle Cinque Scole, 00185 Rome Italy
So called for the Five Rabbinic Schools that stood here, of which however nothing remains today, they were destroyed during the works of arrangement of the area between the end of the 800 and early 1900s. In the square Palazzo Cenci Bolognetti remained on one side and on the other, totally hidden from the unaware eye, the Church dedicated to Santa Maria del Pianto, incomplete and without the main facade, so called by the Miraculous image kept inside. It is said that many years ago, an image of the Madonna placed nearby was an involuntary spectator of a murder, this sad event made the Icon cry that from that moment became the object of profound Veneration. Today in the center of the square there is the Fontana del Pianto, moved here in the modern era.
Duration: 20 minutes
Stop At: Tempio Maggiore di Roma, Lungotevere de Cenci, 00186 Rome Italy
One of the largest synagogues in Europe, which was built in 1904 by the architects Armani and Costa, in an eclectic style that blends together the Liberty taste with the Oriental traditions, completely aniconic, as the Jewish Religion dictates
Duration: 20 minutes
Stop At: Via Portico d’Ottavia, Via del Portico d’Ottavia 29 Sant’Angelo (Ghetto), 00186 Rome Italy
Continuing along the road, you reach the Portico d’Ottavia, the ancient monument built by the Emperor Augustus and dedicated to the beloved Sister, inside which there were rooms for concerts, libraries and a large square with Temples dedicated to Juno Regina and Jupiter Stator. Here in the Middle Ages the Church of Sant’Angelo in Pescheria entered, with the Oratory of the Fishmongers on the side, dedicated to Sant’Andrea. The reference to fish is due to the fact that right here, among the remains of the Portico, an important fish market was established which remained in use until the end of the 1800s, when it was suppressed because the Tiber, following the construction of the walls that protect the City of floods, it stopped being navigable. The area of the Portico d’Ottavia, however, is also the protagonist of one of the darkest pages in history. It was here in fact that on October 16, 1943 all the Jews of the Ghetto were gathered to be deported to concentration camps and a plaque placed here, commemorates all the numerous victims.
Duration: 20 minutes
Stop At: San Gregorio della Divina Pieta, Rione Sant’angelo, Rome Italy
Just before crossing the Lungotevere and leaving the Jewish Quarter, you will find on the left the small Church of San Gregorio della Divina Pietà (F), also called San Gregorio al Ponte Quattro Capi or San Gregorietto ai Quattro Capi with a Cartouche on the facade inscription in double language (Latin and Hebrew) of a passage from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah and used against the Jews as a warning.
Duration: 20 minutes
