Medieval Synagogue of Vienna, Seitenstettengasse

Еврейская община

The Jewish community of medieval Vienna dates from the end of the twelfth century. Its first known member, Schlom, was appointed mint master by the duke; sources differ on whether this was Leopold V or Frederick I, and give 1194 for the appointment. He owned four plots in the area of today's Seitenstettengasse 4 and 6, bordering the synagogue. In 1196 crusaders passing through Vienna murdered him together with fifteen other Jews, members of his household according to one account. The settlement survived this attack. A community with its own institutions must have existed by about 1220-30, when Rabbi Isaac bar Moses was active in Vienna, and the privileges granted by Emperor Frederick II in 1238 and by Duke Frederick II in 1244 defined the legal position of the city's Jews, mostly in connection with pawnbroking. From the 1280s the Jewish quarter centred on Judenplatz. At its height the community is estimated to have numbered some 800 to 900 people, about five per cent of the city's population.

Архитектура и дизайн

Nothing is known about the appearance of the building. No description, plan, view or archaeological find has been located for the synagogue at Seitenstettengasse 2, and no excavation of the plot is recorded in the sources read. The Latin term 'schola Iudeorum' used for it means a place of Jewish assembly, prayer and study and says nothing about the form or size of the structure. The builder, the building material, the date of construction, the seating capacity and the internal arrangement are all unknown. For comparison only, the later synagogue at Judenplatz, which became the community's main house of prayer, measured about 20 by 12 metres; the Wien Geschichte Wiki notes that it was built on the foundations of older timber buildings, but no source says whether the earlier synagogue at Seitenstettengasse was of timber or stone. It is not even recorded whether it was a free-standing building or part of a group of houses belonging to Schlom, whose plots adjoined it.

Жизнь в синагоге

No source describing worship, teaching or communal life in this particular building has been found. What is known is that it served the first generation of Jewish settlers in Vienna, a small group connected with the ducal court and the mint, at the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth century. The word 'schola' used for it reflects the double function of the medieval synagogue as a house of prayer and of study. The rise of Vienna as a centre of Jewish learning, associated with Rabbi Isaac bar Moses, author of Or Zarua, belongs to the decades around 1220-60, but it is not known whether he taught or prayed in this synagogue or in the one at Judenplatz, which the Wien Geschichte Wiki dates to between 1236 and 1260. When the Jewish quarter centred on Judenplatz from the 1280s, communal life moved with it, and whether services continued at Seitenstettengasse after that is unknown.

Разрушение

No record of the end of this synagogue has been found. The Wien Geschichte Wiki says only that a synagogue once stood at Seitenstettengasse 2 and gives no date for its disappearance. It may have fallen out of use after the Jewish settlement shifted to the Judenplatz quarter around 1280, or it may have survived until the destruction of the medieval community in 1420-21, after which Duke Albrecht V gave away the Jewish houses; the encyclopaedia's statement that 'the synagogue' was then demolished appears to refer to the synagogue at Judenplatz, not this one. Who demolished the building, and when, is not recorded. The only firm limit is that the architect Josef Kornhäusel built the present house on the plot in 1825-27, so any remains had gone by then.

Судьба общины

The medieval Jewish community of Vienna was destroyed in the Vienna Gesera of 1420-21. From 23 May 1420, on the orders of Duke Albrecht V, the Jews of Austria were seized and some were baptised by force. According to the Wien Geschichte Wiki, the poor were expelled down the Danube in small boats without oars and most reached Pressburg, while the wealthier were held prisoner. From August 1420 the prisoners were tortured to make them convert and reveal hidden property, and Jewish children were held and starved in the Judenplatz synagogue and then baptised by force. Around the end of September 1420 Rabbi Jona is said to have burned himself in that synagogue as an act of martyrdom. Around Easter 1421, 212 Jews still in Vienna, 92 men and 120 women, were burned on the Gänseweide at Erdberg, and further burnings followed. The Gesera ended organised Jewish life in Vienna for centuries.

Место сегодня

The plot is today the corner house Seitenstettengasse 2 / Judengasse 14 in the first district, at Desider-Friedmann-Platz. The present building was built by the architect Josef Kornhäusel in 1825-27; it was his own home and he died there, and the writer Adalbert Stifter lived in it from 1842 to 1848. Next door, at Seitenstettengasse 4, stands the Stadttempel, the city synagogue Kornhäusel built for the Jewish community in 1825-26, which is still in use; it is a separate building from the medieval synagogue. No remains of the medieval synagogue and no marker for it on the site are recorded in the sources read.

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