Jewish women's bath (Lengnau)
The Jewish women's bath in Lengnau in the Swiss canton of Aargau was a mikveh of the village's Jewish community. It is probably the oldest surviving mikveh in Switzerland.
building
The ritual purity is of particular importance in Judaism and so the possibility of taking the prescribed immersion baths in a mikveh was part of Jewish life. The Jewish community in Lengnau already had a mikveh in the basement of what would later become the Mazzen bakery , but in 1848 they built a mikveh in Spycherweg, which was reserved for women and was used for religious purposes until 1923. After that it served as a storage shed for a family, into whose private property it passed. Inside are three plunge pools that were later covered with concrete. Two of these bathing pools were used to treat the water from a nearby source, the third and largest pool was the actual mikveh. The style of the building is more reminiscent of a garden shed. The building is unadorned, the floor plan of 35 m² is square and it is covered with a hipped roof. Today the restored building is under cantonal protection and is owned by a local foundation. The house is easily visible through a large glass door.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Andreas Schneitter: Under the protection of the canton - The Mikwa von Lengnau, the oldest preserved ritual bath in Switzerland, has been extensively restored . In: Tachles - the Jewish weekly magazine . No. 37 . Zurich, September 19, 2014, p. 17 .