Medieval synagogues in Buda

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Small Medieval Synagogue Buda

The Small Medieval Synagogue , also known as the Medieval Jewish Prayer House (Hungarian: Középkori Zsidó Imaház) or Small Mendel House , is now a museum in the historic Buda district of Budapest (German: oven) that provides an insight into the life of the Jews in Buda from the Middle Ages there until the end of Turkish rule . It is a restored medieval house, which contains a room used as a prayer room by the Sephardic community in the Ottoman period .

In Buda there were also two large medieval synagogues of the Ashkenazi community - in the old and new Jewish quarters of Buda. The remains of these buildings have so far only been provisionally uncovered and examined, but then filled in again, so they cannot yet be viewed.

History of the Buda Jewish Quarter

After the Mongol storm of 1241, Hungary's population was severely decimated. King Béla IV therefore encouraged the influx of new settlers, mainly from the Rhineland, France and Wallonia. Numerous Jews from Western Europe also settled in Hungary, as Béla IV. Created clear legal relationships for them in 1251 based on the model of the German emperors ( "Worms Privilege" , " Chamber Slavery "): In exchange for the obligation to pay high taxes to the court granted the Jews the freedom to practice their religion, the appointment of rabbis and judges, and the right to trade. A Hungarian city preferred by Jewish immigrants was Buda, which was the capital of the Hungarian Empire from 1361 until the Turkish conquest in 1541 .

Around 1250, Béla IV appointed a Viennese named Henel (also: Henok) as administrator of the royal mint (comes camerae regiae). Henel and his sons and successors were probably Jews. Their coins minted in Buda bore Hebrew letters as mint marks. Buda's old Jewish quarter ( location ) was located near the mint, between the western side of today's Szent György utca (St. Georg Street) and the city wall, i.e. in the south-western end of the Buda Castle district , near the royal palace. Today's St. Georg Strasse was called Judengasse (platea Judeorum, location ) and the nearby Fehérvárer Tor (Weißenburger Tor) was called the Judentor ( location ). Opposite this was the St. John's Gate. The coexistence of the Buda Jews with their Christian neighbors at this time was evidently not yet characterized by the discriminatory provisions of the Lateran Council of 1215, so that the Holy See in the Council of Buda in 1279 demanded the enforcement of the obligation to label Jews again. In Hungary they had to wear red circular disks made of fabric (circulus de panno rubeo) on their outer clothing at the level of the heart. Nevertheless, until 1360 the Jews were mainly treated as citizens with equal rights and were hardly restricted in their choice of residence.

Under Lajos I (Ludwig the Great) the Jews were also expelled from the city of Buda as the alleged cause of a plague wave in Europe in 1360, but were allowed to return again from 1364. As a result, Buda's new Jewish quarter ( location ) arose in the north of the Burgviertel on both sides of today's Táncsics Mihály Street in the direction of Bécsi kapu tér (Wiener Tor Platz) up to the eastern city wall, which was also home to the Turkish occupation (1541–1686) Buda was a Jew.

While older sources see the temporary expulsion of the Jews as the time of the relocation of the Jewish quarter on the castle hill. According to recent document analyzes and finds, the old Jewish quarter may have continued to exist until around the beginning of the 15th century. A possible reason for the move is the redesign of the zone between the palace and the two gates under King Sigismund (1387–1437) in the sense of a concentration of church buildings. In the 16th century, lavish residences of high-ranking dignitaries of the royal court were built in this zone - especially on the western side of the old Judengasse.

Instead of the Jewish judge (iudex Judeorum totius regni), which Lajos I had introduced, Hunyadi Mátyás (Matthias Corvinus) , 1458–1490 King of Hungary, defined the institution of Jewish prefect (praefectus Judeorum), which first appeared in documents in 1482. He entrusted this office to Mendel (Mendel Judaeus), the praeses of the Buda community. Members of his wealthy family provided this influential representative of the Hungarian Jews until 1541. They owned a representative building complex in the new Jewish quarter.

After their victory in the Battle of Mohács , the Turks advanced to Buda for the first time in 1526. The Hungarian King Lajos II (Ludwig II) had died in the battle, his court had left the city - most of the Jews had stayed. When the Turks withdrew, they not only led 100,000 Hungarian residents into slavery. The Jews of Buda were also resettled in several cities of the Ottoman Empire. Ferdinand I (King of Hungary 1526–1564) then gave away the abandoned houses of the Buda Jews - including the property of the Jewish prefects in today's Táncsics Mihály Street No. 23, No. 26 and No. 28.

In 1541 the Turks succeeded in conquering Buda. This was followed by a return of the Jews from the Turkish Empire and a renewed influx from Christian Europe, where Jews were repeatedly victims of discrimination and violence. From the end of the 16th century Buda housed the largest Jewish community in the tripartite Hungary. Around 5% of the 20,000 inhabitants were Jews. When the city was besieged, they fought alongside the Turks who were tolerant of them. B. in the year 1598. This was also the case in 1684, when the troops of the Holy Roman Empire and its allies advanced to an - unsuccessful - siege of Buda after repelling the Turkish siege of Vienna .

The year 1686 brought the end of Turkish rule over Buda after the "Holy Alliance" took the fortress defended by Abdurrahman Abdi Pasha in a second siege . Only about 400 people survived the devastation and bloody vengeance of the victors on the side of the Jews. These were imprisoned, and Jews across Europe continued to collect money for many years in order to be able to buy their fellow believers out. After the destruction of Buda, the city of Pest, on the Danube side opposite Buda, developed into the most important place of residence for Hungarian Jews.

Synagogues in Buda

Most of the Buda Jews came from Central Europe, so they were Ashkenazi . They mostly spoke German or Yiddish and had German names. This was also true for the time of Turkish rule, which can be read from the tombstones of this epoache. The newly immigrated Jews from the Turkish Empire belonged to the Sephardic minority group , who spoke Ladino and had their own rites.

Synagogue Judeorum

In the Hungarian illustrated chronicle (Chronicon pictum, Marci de Kalt, Chronica de gestis Hungarorum) from 1360 a "Synagoga Judeorum" ( location ) of the old Jewish quarter is mentioned in relation to the year 1307 . Its long-sought remains could only be located during excavations by the Medieval Department of the Budapest Museum in 2005 right next to the former Jewish Gate under the pavement of the busy Palota út (Palace Street). And the mikveh was found in the neighboring property south of the synagogue. The cemetery ( location ) of this Jewish community (sepultura Judeorum) was discovered during construction work at the end of the 19th century. It was located below the castle hill in the Pauler, Alagút, Roham and Attila Streets. The oldest tombstone discovered and dated here dates from 1278. It is now on display in the Budapest History Museum.

During the excavations, the remains of a two-aisled building were uncovered, the shape and dimensions of which largely corresponded to the Great Buda Synagogue found 40 years earlier in the new Jewish quarter. There are also great similarities to the medieval synagogue excavated in Vienna and to the Prague Old New School (staronová synagoga). On the other hand, the location of the building is unusual. While synagogues were usually located in the middle of the Jewish residential area in the Middle Ages, the Synagoga Judeorum was built right next to the gatehouse, which could be due to the high esteem of the Jews at the time of King Béla IV.

Great Buda Synagogue

As an Ashkenazi synagogue for the new Jewish quarter, the "Great Buda Synagogue" ( location ) was built in 1461 on the Mendel family's estate, the seat of the Jewish Prefect . It was destroyed and buried in 1686, the year Buda Fortress was conquered by the troops of the Holy Roman Empire. Her remains were found in 1964 in the garden of the Táncsics house at 23 Mihály Street. The building was obviously a splendid example of late Gothic architecture. The rectangular main room of approx. 10.7 by 26.5 meters had two aisles and the ribbed vault in the middle of the room was supported on three free-standing columns. On the same level there was a vestibule and a little higher was the prayer room for women. The exposed structures had to be covered with earth again in order not to endanger the houses above them.

The year of construction of the synagogue could be determined by the Hebrew letters (שא and פ), which are carved on the foot of a wall pillar. Translated into numbers and converted to the Christian calendar, they can be read as follows: "In 1541 the temple is 80 years old". The year of construction in 1461 is also made plausible by a document from 1462, which mentions the synagogue and Jakob Mendel's house.

Small medieval synagogue

The "Small Medieval Synagogue" (Hungarian: Középkori Zsidó Imaház, location ) is located in the new Jewish quarter at the northern end of the castle hill. A synagogue room was found here in 1964 during a monument conservation investigation of the residential building at Táncsics Mihály Street 26. One of the oldest parts of the medieval property, which has been redesigned several times and is also known as the "Little Mendel House", is the vaulted wing, which today houses the lapidarium and has served as an entrance again since the building was restored. A spacious hall on the ground floor, which presumably extended into the neighboring property, Táncsics Mihály Street 28, could have served as a prefecture's consultation room or for ritual purposes in the 14th to 15th centuries.

The location of the synagogue can already be seen in the street facade of the house, as the upper floor protruding from the building is supported by four brick vaulted arches resting on stone consoles. In the south of the synagogue interior a Gothic pillar with two round arches supports the ceiling, in the north the prayer room for women is divided off with two round arches and a Gothic interior window. From the restored wall painting it was concluded that the building served as a house of prayer for the Sephardic community of Buda Jews during the Turkish period. Today the house houses a branch of the Budapest History Museum .

Exhibition in the Small Medieval Synagogue

The museum at 26 Táncsics Mihály Street gives an overview of the life of the Jews in Buda. In the entrance vault of the building, several tombstones from the Middle Ages and the Turkish times are set up, whereby the tombstone of Madame Freudel is particularly noteworthy because of several biblical quotations. The adjoining inner courtyard contains some striking pillar fragments from the Great Buda Synagogue found on the property opposite. One of their vault keystones is part of the exhibition inside the prayer room. Display boards give a brief insight into the history of the Buda Jews and mark the architecture of the Great Buda Synagogue.

The red wall paintings in the main room were dated to the 17th century. The two large symbols with inscriptions are legible. In some cases, the choice of quotations is interpreted as an expression of premonition and fear of the community of the growing pressure of the Christian armies. So the text embedded in a depiction of a bow and arrow is Hannah's prayer (1 Samuel 2: 4):

קשת גברים חתים ונכשלים אזרו חיל׃

The heroes' bow is afraid, but those who stumble have girded themselves with strength. (Zurich Bible 2007)


And the priestly blessing is distributed in a star of David (Numbers 6: 24-26):

יברכך הי וישמרך׃

יאר הי פניו אליך ויחנך׃

ישא הי פניו אליך וישם לך שלום׃


The lord bless you and take care of you.

The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you.

The Lord lift up his face on you and give you peace.


That the fear of the Jews was unfortunately justified is conveyed by one of the information boards in the museum, which quotes from a report by the Buda Rabbi Ephraim Kohen about the conquest of the fortress by the troops of the “Holy Alliance”: "... they have" their humanity moving out "killed numerous Jews. Among them was my sister Esther, who was a good person and God-fearing. She lay there unburied on the ground like manure ..." . Ephraim Kohen's brother-in-law Isaak Schulhof left a harrowing chronology of the fall of Ofen: Megillat Ofen.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frojimovics et al., 1999, p. 4
  2. ↑ Frojimovics et al., 1999, p. 5
  3. ↑ Végh, 1998, pp. 222-227
  4. ↑ Scheiber, 1983, pp. 81-85
  5. ↑ Zolnay, 1987, pp. 16-17
  6. ↑ Vegh, 1998, pp. 222-227
  7. ↑ Végh, 2006, p. 126
  8. ↑ Szende, 2009, p. 198
  9. ^ Végh, 2010
  10. ↑ Frojimovics et al., 1999, p. 14
  11. ↑ Frojimovics et al., 1999, p. 22
  12. ↑ Papp, 1970, p. 213
  13. ↑ At the end of the 16th century, Hungary consisted of areas under Habsburg or Turkish occupation as well as Transylvania (Transylvania).
  14. ↑ Frojimovics et al., 1999, p. 26
  15. ↑ Frojimovics et al., 1999, p. 27
  16. ↑ Frojimovics et al., 1999, p. 40
  17. ↑ Vegh, 2006
  18. ↑ Vegh, 2010
  19. ↑ Papp, 1970, pp. 218-225
  20. ↑ Scheiber, 1983, pp. 81-85
  21. ↑ Papp, 1970, pp. 205-218
  22. ↑ Scheiber, 1983
  23. ↑ Madame Freudel's gravestone in the Small Medieval Synagogue (PDF; 267 kB )
  24. ↑ German translation of the display boards in the Small Medieval Synagogue (PDF; 661 kB)
  25. ^ Kaufmann, 1895

literature

  • Kinga Frojimovics, Géza Komoróczy, Viktória Pusztai & Andrea Strbik: Jewish Budapest: Monuments, Rites, History , pp. 3–40, Central European University Press, Budapest: 1999. ISBN 963-9116-38-6 (Hungarian original edition 1995: A zsidó Budapest. Emlékek, szertartások, történelem)
  • Kaufmann, David: The storming of Oven and its prehistory according to the report by Isaak Schulhof (1650-1732) (Megillat Ofen) , Sigmund Mayer, Trier 1895
  • Papp, Melinda: Monuments in the medieval Jewish quarter of the Buda (Ofner) Castle , Acta Technica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Vol. 67, pp. 205–225, Budapest 1970
  • Scheiber, Alexander: Jewish inscriptions in Hungary , Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 1983
  • Szende, Katalin: History and archeology in the study of medieval urban development in Hungary , in Exploring the medieval city ​​- archeology and history in dialogue , editors: Armand Baeriswyl, Georges Descœudres, Martina Stercken and Dölf Wild (Swiss contributions to the cultural history and archeology of the Middle Ages , Volume 36), pp. 193–202, Schweizerischer Burgenverein, Basel 2009
  • Hungarian illustrated chronicle (Chronicon pictum, Marci de Kalt, Chronica de gestis Hungarorum), 1360
  • Végh, András: Contributions to the history of the newer collegiate monastery to Our Lady or St. Sigismund von Buda (oven) , Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Vol. 50, Budapest 1998, pp. 215-231
  • Végh, András: The remains of the first Jewish quarter of Buda in the light of recent excavations , in Archaeological investigations in Hungary 2005 , editors: Kisfaludi Júlia, Kulturális Örökségvédelmi Hivatal, Budapest 2006
  • Végh, András: The synagogues in Buda (14th - 15th centuries): recent research , in Archéologie du judaïsme en France et en Europe , Colloque international, Paris 2010
  • Zolnay, László: Buda középkori zsidósága és zsinagógáik [The Jews in medieval Buda and their synagogues], Budapesti Történeti Múzeum, Budapest 1987

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