Prague Jewish Quarter: A complete guide to Josefov

When travellers arrive at Prague's Jewish Quarter and spot the sign reading "Spanish Synagogue", the reaction is almost always the same: confusion. What is a Spanish synagogue doing in the middle of Prague?

The answer has nothing to do with Sephardic Jews or any community of Spanish origin. The synagogue takes its name from its architecture, a Moorish-style interior that directly imitates the decoration of the Alhambra in Granada. Geometric tiles, horseshoe arches, gilded stucco ornamentation. When it was built in 1868, Prague's Jewish community chose this style as a tribute to the golden age of Judaism in Al-Andalus. There is no geographical connection. Only an architectural reference to an era of coexistence that had long since vanished.

That story, compressed into the name of a single building, sums up quite well what makes Prague's Jewish Quarter different.

Why is the Spanish Synagogue called "Spanish"?

The Spanish Synagogue in Prague is the most recent of the quarter's five historic synagogues, built in 1868 on the site of Prague's oldest synagogue. Its full Czech name is Spanelska synagoga, and it has no connection to any Sephardic community or link to Spain.

The style is called Mudejar or Moorish: a decorative language from medieval Andalusi architecture that by the mid-nineteenth century was fashionable across Europe as an expression of Orientalist Romanticism. Architects Josef Niklas and Jan Belsky chose it deliberately as a reference to the Golden Age of Judaism on the Iberian Peninsula, when Jewish communities lived under Arab rule in relative cultural prosperity. It is a gesture of memory, not of origin.

The result is one of Prague's most spectacular interiors: geometric arabesques in green, red and gold covering every centimetre of ceiling, arches and columns. Most travellers who walk in without knowing what to expect leave with more photographs of the Spanish Synagogue than of anywhere else in the quarter.

Prague's Jewish Quarter (Josefov): what most people don't know

The most common misconception that ODISEA guides correct on nearly every tour: this was not a ghetto like Warsaw's. Josefov was a historic neighbourhood, not an extermination camp or a zone of active confinement during the Second World War. Its history is far longer and far more complex.

Prague's Jewish community has existed since roughly the tenth century, a thread that forms an essential part of the history and culture of the Czech Republic. The Old-New Synagogue, the oldest still functioning as an active place of worship in Europe, dates from 1270. That predates most cathedrals travellers visit on the continent.

What the Second World War did here: of the 77,297 Jews from Bohemia and Moravia deported and murdered by the Nazi regime, every name is inscribed by hand on the walls of the Pinkas Synagogue. It is one of the quietest and most devastating Holocaust memorials in Europe, not because it is spectacular, but because it is a list. Name after name, date after date, on walls that seem to have no end.

Today, approximately 2,500 Jews live in Prague. In the context of twentieth-century European Jewish history, that is a remarkably large number.

The 5 synagogues and the cemetery: what the ticket covers

The Jewish Museum in Prague manages a group of five synagogues and the historic cemetery under a single entry ticket. These are the six sites:

Old-New Synagogue (Staronova synagoga, 1270) The oldest. Early Gothic, red brick, six-ribbed vaulted ceiling. It remains an active place of worship where religious services are still held, which sets it apart from all the others, which are museums. It is also the setting for the legend of the Golem (see below).

Pinkas Synagogue (Pinkasova synagoga) Converted into a Holocaust memorial. The walls are covered with 77,297 names of Jewish victims from Bohemia and Moravia, hand-written by artists and survivors between 1954 and 1959. On the upper floor, drawings made by children in the Terezin concentration camp.

Old Jewish Cemetery (Stary zidovsky hrbitov) See dedicated section below.

Maisel Synagogue (Maiselova synagoga) Built in the sixteenth century by Mordecai Maisel, mayor of the Jewish quarter and financier to the crown. Today it serves as a museum of Jewish history in Bohemia.

Spanish Synagogue (Spanelska synagoga, 1868) The Moorish interior. The most photogenic of the group, and the one that generates the most questions because of its name.

Klaus Synagogue (Klausova synagoga) Baroque, seventeenth century. Collection of Judaic art, books, manuscripts and ritual objects.

The Old Jewish Cemetery: the moment that silences the group

Of all the sites in the Jewish Quarter, the one that produces the deepest silence among ODISEA groups is the Old Jewish Cemetery.

The explanation the guide gives is straightforward: more than 90,000 people are buried in this small space. The gravestones, more than 12,000 visible, are stacked on top of one another because the ground beneath them holds between 12 and 14 superimposed layers of burials accumulated over the centuries.

Why? Because Prague's Jewish community was not allowed to expand. The quarter's walls marked the limits of what the city permitted them to occupy. When the cemetery filled up, they could not build a new one. They could only keep burying upwards, covering old graves with fresh earth and adding another layer. Century after century.

The result is a space that looks nothing like any conventional European cemetery: gravestones leaning, crowded together, at different angles, with dates spanning the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. The density is visible even to someone who knows nothing about what they are looking at. When the guide states the number, 90,000 people in that space, the group instantly grasps what it meant to survive within those boundaries for 600 years.

Prices and tickets for the Jewish Museum in Prague

Since January 2024 there has been a single combined ticket granting access to every site in the complex: the five synagogues, the cemetery and the Old-New Synagogue.

The ticket is valid for 3 days, so you can spread your visits across different days if you prefer a slower pace. Buy online at jewishmuseum.cz to skip the queue at the ticket office.

Opening hours and when to visit

The Jewish Museum is closed on Saturdays (Shabbat) and during major Jewish holidays. In 2026, the most relevant closures for travellers planning ahead include Passover (2 April), Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (21 September). Check the full calendar on the official website before planning your visit.

On all other days, general opening hours are 9:00 to 18:00 (high season) and 9:00 to 16:30 (low season). Hours are subject to change; verify at jewishmuseum.cz.

Best time to visit: before 11:00 or after 15:00. Between 11:00 and 15:00 the Jewish Quarter sees the heaviest tourist traffic in central Prague. Organised cruise and hotel groups tend to converge during those hours, especially in summer.

How to get to Prague's Jewish Quarter

Josefov sits in the heart of the Old Town, reachable from anywhere in the centre in under 15 minutes.

• By metro: Line A, stop Staromestska, 3 minutes on foot
• From the Old Town Square: 5 minutes walking north along Parizska street
• From Charles Bridge: 10 minutes on foot, crossing the Old Town

See Josefov on Google Maps

Parizska street, which runs through the quarter from north to south, is Prague's most exclusive shopping avenue, luxury boutiques housed in Art Nouveau buildings. It is worth walking even if you have no intention of entering a single shop.

The Golem: the most asked-about legend in the quarter

Nearly every group asks about the Golem sooner or later. It is the best-known legend of Prague's Jewish Quarter, and it has a fixed address: the Old-New Synagogue.

According to the legend, Rabbi Loew, a real historical figure who served as Chief Rabbi of Prague in the sixteenth century, fashioned a figure from clay taken from the river Vltava and brought it to life by inscribing a sacred word on its forehead. The Golem protected the Jewish community from outside attacks. When the Rabbi wanted to stop it, he erased one letter from that word and the figure went inert.

The legend says the Golem is still stored in the attic of the Old-New Synagogue. The attic, naturally, is not open to the public.

The ODISEA guide weaves the Golem into the tour for what it truly is: a survival story. Prague's Jewish community did not need a clay monster. They needed a narrative of protection in a context of recurring violence. The Golem is that narrative.

Visit the Jewish Quarter with ODISEA Tours

The ODISEA Free Tour Old Town and Jewish Quarter passes through the exterior of Josefov, the Spanish Synagogue, the Old-New Synagogue, the streets of the historic quarter and the perimeter of the cemetery. The tour does not include entry to the paid monuments: that is left for the traveller to do independently afterwards.

What the tour covers in this part of the route: the historical context of Prague's Jewish community, the explanation behind the Spanish Synagogue's name, the legend of the Golem and the story of the cemetery seen from outside.

Many travellers who take the free tour choose to enter the museum on their own afterwards. With the context already provided, the visit makes far more sense.

For those who want to go deeper into the history of the Nazi occupation in the region, the Terezin day trip is the natural next step: the concentration camp where tens of thousands of Bohemian Jews whose names are written on the walls of the Pinkas Synagogue were deported. To understand the broader context of Nazism and Communism in Prague, we have a dedicated article.

• Meeting point: in front of ZARA, Na Prikope 15/583, near Wenceslas Square. Find all the details in the free tour in Prague guide
• Times: 10:00 and 14:00
• Duration: approx. 2h30

Book at odisea.tours.

Frequently asked questions about Prague's Jewish Quarter

What is the Spanish Synagogue in Prague? The Spanish Synagogue is the most recent of the five historic synagogues in Prague's Jewish Quarter, built in 1868. Its name comes from its Mudejar architectural style, inspired by the Alhambra in Granada. It has no connection to a Jewish community of Spanish origin.

How much does it cost to enter Prague's Jewish Quarter? The combined ticket for the Jewish Museum in Prague costs 600 CZK (approx. 24 EUR) for adults and grants access to all synagogues and the Old Jewish Cemetery for 3 days. Students up to 26 pay 400 CZK; children aged 7 to 15 pay 200 CZK; under 6 go free.

Is Prague's Jewish Quarter ever closed? Yes. The Jewish Museum is closed on Saturdays (Shabbat) and during major Jewish holidays. It is essential to check the calendar before planning your visit, particularly in spring (Passover) and autumn (Yom Kippur).

How long do you need to visit the Jewish Quarter? Allow approximately 2 hours to visit the synagogues and cemetery at a comfortable pace. The ticket is valid for 3 days, so you can split it across multiple visits if you prefer.

Does the ODISEA free tour go inside the Jewish Museum? No. The free tour passes through the exterior of the quarter and explains the history and context of the complex. The interiors of the monuments, synagogues and cemetery require a paid ticket that the traveller purchases independently if they choose to enter.

Where is the Jewish Quarter in Prague? Josefov is in the heart of the Old Town, 5 minutes from Old Town Square and 3 minutes from the Staromestska metro stop (Line A).

Book the Free Tour Old Town and Jewish Quarter with ODISEA.