Official review… “Museum Jewish Quarter” (Vienna)

LOCATION. Nearest tube station: Herrengasse. Then embark on a ten-minute walk uphill passing through medieval alleys and a joyous theatrical square, Am Hof.

See: “Museum Jewish Quarter” (Vienna)

HERITAGE. The Jewish Quarter was a medieval Jewish settlement in Northwest Vienna. It grew to a population of nearly a thousand in the early fifteenth century.

Mounting hate towards the Jews under Duke Albrecht V led to the community being entirely destroyed in 1420. This resulted in both expulsion and murder.

(It was until more than a hundred years later that another Jewish settlement was to be formed in Leopoldstadt, the Danube’s “island” district.)

Computer graphic showing the Jewish Quarter in multiple angles, five hundred years ago.  “Museum Jewish Quarter” (Vienna)

EXCAVATION. The foundation of the quarter’s synagogue (destroyed 1420-21) was discovered in 1995. You’ll get to visit the air-conditioned ruins underneath the museum.

Another angle: “Museum Jewish Quarter” (Vienna)

NEARBY ATTRACTION. A five-second walk away is this huge concrete cube, aka “Nameless Library” designed by Rachel Whiteread (from Britain!). On close examination you’ll realize the cube is actually a book shelf, only with all its volumes turned inside out – a symbol of how an ethnicity can be unread and misunderstood.

(Just a suggestion: Now visit the other Jewish Museum of Vienna.)

Time is asset: save it for better with 25-min museum tours. Or find yourself in my novel, check out the photo of the day and finish it off with a secret prize.

Tags - in_depth_tourism; museum; London_writer; London_travel; indie_writer; independent_blogger

Alternative names. Judenplatz.