Restored in 1998 to 2001 with funding from The Steven H. and Alida Brill Scheuer Foundation.

Founded in 1528 by the German Ashkenazi community in Venice, the Scuola Grande Tedesca is the earliest of the five synagogues in the Venetian Ghetto. The islands that form the Ghetto Nuovo and Ghetto Vecchio were originally the site of the city’s metal foundry (“Geto de rame del nostro Comun”), from which the word ghetto is derived. In 1516 the Venetian government designated the neighborhood as a restricted and protected area for the Jews of many nations who worked and traded in Venice.

The Scuola Grande Tedesca occupies the fourth and fifth floors of a five-story building that today also houses the Jewish Museum of Venice (Museo Ebraico di Venezia). Despite later redecorations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this house of worship has remained remarkably intact. The irregular plan of the preexisting space led the architect of the synagogue to employ certain elements to create an illusion of a rectangular room, such as the elliptical women’s gallery above that effectively masks the irregularity of the space. The walls are decorated with marmorino, a lime-based plaster that incorporates actual marble dust in order to imitate slabs of marble — an elegant, cost-effective, and structurally preferable alternative. Numerous carved wooden furnishings and architectural elements, many of which are gilded, further heighten the beauty of the sacred space.

In addition to the replacement of its roof, the entire building underwent detailed structural and static testing to determine the state of conservation as well as its overall structural condition. The walls, foundations, and wooden supports were analyzed, and electric sensors were placed to monitor movement and detailed geometric surveys made. Structural corrections and repairs were made according to the test results. The analyses were overseen by structural consultant Franco Forcellini and the restoration by conservator Antonio Perale, with the guidance of and project director Anna Chiarelli of the Superintendency of Monuments of Venice.

For select projects, conservation dossiers in Italian containing limited textual and photographic documentation may be available for consultation by appointment at the Venice office of Save Venice and the Rosand Library & Study Center. For inquiries, please contact us at venice@savevenice.org.

Unidentified artists
Scuola Grande Tedesca
1528 (with later additions)

Museo Ebraico di Venezia: Homepage

Museo Ebraico di Venezia: Museum Synagogues

Joshua Holo, “The Scola Grande Tedesca: A Synagogue’s Return” (2001)