Combined ticket to visit the synagogues: 300 Kc adults, 200 Kc students.

The ticket is to visit the Maisel Synagogue, the Spanish Synagogue, the Pinkas Synagogue, the Old Jewish Cemetery, the Klausen Synagogue, and the Ceremonial Hall. There is a separate ticket to visit the Old-New Synagogue. No pictures allowed in the synagogues.

The Jewish Museum in Prague was originally established in 1890s. It was created to preserve religious artifacts, manuscripts, and old prints from Prague synagogues. The museum was closed by the Nazis in 1939. In 1950, the museum was taken over by the state, and only in 1994 were the collections of the State Jewish Museum were returned to the Jewish community and the Jewish Museum in Prague established. The collection is very large (one of the largest in Europe), and all the items come from Bohemia and Moravia.

We started the visit with the Ceremonial hall (Obladni sin), which has art nouveau décor and a large exposition of reliquaries and paintings of Jewish life. Upstairs you can see dishes and silverware from the 19th century. From the window you can see old Jewish cemetery.

The Klausen Synagogue (Klausova synagoga) is across the street from the Ceremonial hall. It has a beautiful, large hall with baroque, floral-plaster decoration on the ceiling, a torah ark of green and brown marble with 10 commandments and stained glass windows above it. Everywhere in large cupboards, there are old books in Hebrew, Sabbath dishes and cups, torahs in beautiful mantles, bread plates, kipas, scrolls, menorahs, and clocks. Upstairs there are more personal items and furniture.

Next is the Maisel Synagogue (Maiselova synagoga). It is a neo-Gothic building with stained glass with the Star of David above the neo-Gothic torah ark. This synagogue has a large collection of torah mantles, precious books from the 12 to 13th century, torah crowns, and on the balcony, very large (your height) menorahs. Mordecai Maisel, who lived from 1528 to1601, was an entrepreneur. He became an important person at the royal court of King Rudolph II and was granted privileges, which he used to buy land, enlarge the ghetto area, and build new houses and the synagogue. The original synagogue was built in 1592. It was damaged by the fire several times and was last reconstructed between 1895 and1905.

On the other end of the street is Old-New Synagogue (Staronova synagoga), which has a separate ticket (200 Kc adults, 140 Kc students). Built in 1270, this is the oldest synagogue in Europe. It survived several fires and flood of 1784. This is an active synagogue. It was built in the Gothic style with a beautiful torah ark with a tree above it and an authentic antique cover. In the center, selective seats are inside the ornate cage, with chandeliers attached to light the remainder of the seats.

Prague's Jewish inhabitants suffered from persecution both in medieval times and into this century. The Jewish Museum in Prague sells 1 ticket for the six subsidiary sights (Maisel/Sanish/Pinkas//Klaus Synagogues, Ceremonial Hall and Cemetary) and a separate ticket for the New Synagogue (Staronova synagoga). Each is 250K (£7/$12) and has a limited validity (so you have to make some haste to get into each of the 6 within the allotted 90 mins).

The New Synagogue stands at the heart of the former ghetto, where Jews congregated from C13. High walls separated Jew from Christian (not entirely sure who was kept in and who out) but they were of little use in 1389 when 3000 Jews died in a vicious pogrom. When the Nazis annexed Czechoslovakia in 1939, the Jews fared no better – by 1945, nearly all of Prague's Jewish had perished (see below). The Gothic Synagogue dates from 1275 and is apparently the oldest building of its kind north of the Alps. Entering under the low door (look out for the portal's vine carvings) is like going back into another world. (Remember it’s a practising place of worship - no photos)

The old Jewish Cemetery is a remarkable, chilling place – 12,000 gravestones lay cheek by jowl, one atop another...even more striking when you recall that it’s believed that bodies were buried 12 deep for lack of space. Hitler spared the clutch of synagogues surrounding the cemetery for the most grotesque of reasons – he planned to preserve it as a "museum of a vanished race". As you wander round quietly, the sun dapples though the trees and it looks for all the world like a peaceful, serene spot rather than an ancient burial place. (No photography without permission - seldom given when the cemetery walk-way is busy).

Of the remaining 4 synagogues and ceremonial hall, the Maisel, Pinkas, Klaus and hall contain historic documents and items of Jewish worship. The hall features an interesting Hebraic clock on the inner wall and the Pinkas contains an extraordinary list of 77,297 individuals names of victims of the Holocaust. Last but not least, and furthest out, is the Spanish Synagogue which is remarkably tranquil and beautiful inside, somewhat reminiscent of the Turkish mosques from its ornate wall decorations – it’s a real shame that photography is not allowed (the caretaker smiled sympathetically when I inquired, but regretfully declined on the basis that there were too many people there at the time, so it may be worth asking nicely).

On our third attempt, around 3:30 in the afternoon, we finally visited the Jewish Museum, that is, parts of it that are adjacent to the Jewish Cemetery. We did not visit the Spanish Synagogue, nor the Maisel - both a few blocks away, though not in the same direction. The ticket sellers didn’t volunteer this information because of the language difference and also because they were constantly busy handling the influx of tourists even that late in the day. Locate both on the map and plan ahead for how to see them as we were unaware both are included in the pricey admission (Prague Card does not cover them).

Most of the day, tour groups en masse clogged the narrow entrance to the Pinkas Synagogue that I felt, as well as the adjacent cemetery, best focused for the visitor the plight of Prague’s Jews, crammed into the severely restricted section of Josefov, named in hindsight for the Hapsburg ruler who allowed Jews some freedom within limits after a previous expulsion had showed their commercial talents were missed.

For the non-Jewish visitor, seeing the names of those exterminated by the Nazis that cover the walls inside the Pinkas, and then seeing the incredible pile-up of gravestones tilting on top of one another outside in the cemetery, portrays the precarious status of Prague’s Jews through the centuries. Unfortunately, during the recent August floods, many of the victim’s names and dates, as well as community origins, were obliterated, and the Pinkas had to be closed to visitors. Previously, I had read that when the "exterminated" list of Nazi victims we viewed on the Pinkas’s walls was done the last time, Communist leaders blocked it from completion for several years. The recent floods underline that Prague’s Jews were relegated to what was a less desirable, lower section of the city. Through the centuries, Prague's Jews faced oppression by fellow Czechs, Hapsburgs, Nazis and Communists!

The staircases within the Pinkas are very narrow and much of the Judaica presented will have special meaning only to Jewish visitors. But the Terrezin concentration camp drawings of the children confined there have universal appeal to all those who love children and lament the appalling arbitrariness of their destruction. You’ll remember the walls of names, gravestones topsy-turvy over each other, and the childish exuberance of these drawings because they all attest to the power of hateful might. Ironically, the Nazis preserved the artifacts we see today at the Jewish Museum. They planned to use these artifacts for a "Museum of An Extinct Race." Instead, these objects gathered from all over the Republic today offer "proof" that the Holocaust really happened. Check this website for more details, as Pinkas is due to reopen in August, 2003.