The Jewish ghetto of Rome is visited in five stops, in this order: the Theater of Marcellus, the Portico of Octavia, the heart of the neighborhood between its narrow streets, Piazza Mattei with the Turtle Fountain, and the Great Synagogue of Rome, where the route ends. It's a short circuit, walkable in just over an hour, but dense: each stop contains a layer that goes unnoticed for those who don't know what to look for.
Theater of Marcellus, the starting point
The route begins in front of the Theater of Marcellus, one of the most recognizable monuments in Rome and, despite the similar name, a theater, not an amphitheater. The difference is in the plan: the theater has the shape of a half-moon, looking at a fixed point, a legacy of Greek theaters; the amphitheater closes the circle on both sides, a format that football stadiums still follow today. The Coliseum directly follows the order of overlapping arcades of the Theater of Marcellus, which makes the initial stop also a key to reading the city's most famous monument.
The holes visible in the stone are not the damage of time: they are the mark of where irons supported a marble covering that no longer exists today, destined, centuries later, for the Christian churches of Rome. What you see is, literally, the skeleton of what was. On the three nearby columns, the capital carved with acanthus leaves identifies the Corinthian order, the most elaborate of the three (Doric, Ionic and Corinthian) that the Romans inherited from Greek architecture.
The Portico of Octavia, what remains of two libraries
The second stop is the Portico of Octavia, built in honor of Octavia Minor, sister of Emperor Augustus. The structure that remains today is a small fraction of a complex that housed, among other public functions, two libraries: one with Latin texts, the other with Greek texts, separated by practice, not by hierarchy. Cataloging by language made the search easier, at a time when the Roman elite read Homer and the tragedies of Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus in the original Greek.
In the Middle Ages, the same space became Rome's fish market, an inversion that sums up well the fate of so many ancient monuments in the city: the noble function forgotten, the practical function that survives.
The heart of the ghetto, between signs and doors
After the portico, the path enters the narrow streets of the old ghetto, established by the bull Cum nimis absurdum, by Pope Paul IV, in 1555, and only extinct in 1870. It is here that, in front of several doors, small brass plaques embedded in the sidewalk appear: the stumbling blocks, which mark where Jewish families who were taken to concentration camps during the Second World War lived. The detail changes the rhythm of the tour, and deserves its own stop, which this cluster deals with separately.
Piazza Mattei and the Turtle Fountain
The route continues to Piazza Mattei, a small square within the ghetto itself, where the Turtle Fountain is located. It is the most photographed stop on the circuit, and also the one that most people describe wrongly: the authorship of the fountain and the turtles that decorate it is more specific than street legend usually tells, and is worth a separate article so as not to simplify what deserves precision.
The Great Synagogue of Rome, the end of the route
The tour ends in front of the Great Synagogue of Rome (Tempio Maggiore), built between 1901 and 1904, with a square dome that distinguishes it from any other in the city and symbols such as the Star of David and the Menorah, the seven-branched candelabrum that represented, in the Jerusalem Temple, a light that would not go out. The Jewish presence in Rome has been documented since the 2nd century BC, still in the Republican period, which makes it the oldest Jewish community in Europe in continuity to this day.
What changes with repertoire
Anyone walking along this contextless route sees beautiful streets, a photogenic fountain and a religious building. Those who arrive knowing what to look for will recognize, on the same route, a theater that taught the Coliseum how to rise, a bilingual library transformed into a fish market, a fountain whose popular legend gets its author wrong, and ten-centimeter plaques that hold names, dates and destinations. The distance between these two visits is not time, it is preparation.
This piece came out of a place you can actually visit. To see it up close, with people who study these works and live among them, follow the link: the cultural immersion in Rome
Cultural program in Rome
Walk through Rome with someone who reads it closely
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Learn about the programFrequently asked questions
What to see in Rome's Jewish ghetto?
The classic route follows five stops: the Theater of Marcellus, the Portico of Octavia, the heart of the neighborhood with its memorial plaques, Piazza Mattei with the Turtle Fountain, and the Great Synagogue of Rome, where the tour ends.
Why is the neighborhood called a ghetto?
Because it was established as such by the bull Cum nimis absurdum, by Pope Paul IV, in 1555, which forced the Jewish community in Rome to live isolated within walls. The ghetto was only abolished in 1870.
How long does it take to visit Rome's Jewish ghetto?
Between an hour and an hour and a half for the walking route described here, not counting the time inside the Great Synagogue and the Hebrew Museum, which require a separate entrance.
Is it worth visiting Rome's Jewish ghetto with a guide?
It's worth it, because much of what there is to see there is not on any plaque: why the Theater of Marcellus inspired the Coliseum, why the Turtle Fountain isn't by the artist popular legend credits, what the marks on the stone really mean.
Continue on the route through the ghetto: Fountain of the Turtles, in Piazza Mattei · Stumbling blocks in the Rome ghetto · Jews in Rome, the oldest community · Why is Macbeth "the Scottish play"?
Source video (YouTube): A História contada através do Bairro Hebraico em Roma (NousCast)