The original Jewish ghetto in Rome is no more, says Dino Di Veroli, a member of the Jewish Community of Rome and belonging to an ancient family of the ghetto from the sixteenth century. Standing in its place is our Tempio Maggiore, or Great Synagogue, a monumental testament to the emancipation of Roman and Italian Jewry in the late nineteenth century, explains Dino.

The history of the Great Synagogue of Rome (Tempio Maggiore) begins in the late Nineteenth Century with Italian Unification, known as the Risrogimento. It marked the beginning of full civic integration for the Roman Jews. The Jews of Rome were not just ‘the Jews’ or ‘the' other'—rather, we became Italian citizens, and this is very important, explains Dino.

Visitors to the Jewish Museum of Rome can be guided inside the Great Synagogue with only the internal museum staff and tour guides from the Jewish community of Rome.

It is here that Dino takes his participants on an amazing visual “in situ” architectural journey between representation and tradition.

The idea of constructing a new and grand synagogue emerged as a symbol of the community’s emancipation and integration into Italian society. And so, what we are looking at, says Dino to his group, is a monumental synagogue in the eclectic and Art Nouveau style, facing the Dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica.

In 1901, the community held an international architectural design competition, which was won by architects Vincenzo Costa and Osvaldo Armanni (1855-1929), with painted designs from Domenico Bruschi (1840–1910) and Annibale Brugnoli (1843–1915) and stained glass from Cesare Picchiarini (1871–1943). The temple was built between 1901 and 1904 on the site of 3,373 square meters—one of the four plots of land created by the ghetto clearance program. The Jewish community had purchased the land from the City Council after thirteen years of tough negotiations, hampered by the economic crises occurring after the unification of Italy. The unique design of the synagogue reflected an eclectic style, incorporating elements reminiscent of the Assyrian-Babylonian and Greco-Roman styles.

The Great Synagogue (Tempio Maggiore) was officially inaugurated on July 2, 1904, in a grand ceremony attended by the King of Italy, Vittorio Emanule. The speech made at the inauguration of the Temple by the President of the Jewish Community of Rome, Angelo Sereni, described how thirty years after the emancipation, the Roman Jews wanted a temple “sited between the Capitol and the Janinulum, between the monunments to Vittorio Emanuel II and General Garibaldi, the two great architects of our United Italy; a majestically free temple, surrounded by the pure and free light of the sun... the expression of liberty, equality, and love.”

With a first glimpse upon entering the Great Synagogue (Tempio Maggiore), visitors are greeted by an expansive main hall, designed to accommodate up to 1,000 worshippers. The interior is richly decorated, featuring an array of artistic and symbolic elements. Massive columns that support the only squared cupola (dome) in Rome. The ceiling of the synagogue is particularly remarkable, adorned with intricate stucco and gilded motifs reflecting Jewish iconography and Italian artistic traditions. The internal layout is a slightly elongated Greek cross, visually demontrating the external ground plan of the building. On three sides, a colonnade supports the matroneo (women’s gallery), simultaneously separating the main part of the interior hall from the two-sided aisles and the main entrance behind the extended portico, explains Dino.

Paricpants in Dino’s synagogue tour learn in great detail about the Aron HaKodesh (Holy Ark), which is where the Torah scrolls are kept. The Aron HaKodesh is an impressive work of art, carved from fine wood and overlaid with gold leaf. Facing the sanctuary is the Bimah (podium), approached on two sides by flights of eight steps surrounded by an iron balustrade with marble panels—this is the platform from which the Torah is read. Dino specifically points out how the design of the aron and bimah was typical of the synagogues of the Emancipation period, clearly inspired by the layout of Catholic churces, with the altar marking a clear separation between celebrant and congregation. However, this arrangement is centrally positioned and elevated, symbolizing the centrality of Torah in Jewish life. Dino also points out that now participants can read the Tables of the Law above the Aron Hakodesh, bearing the following Hebrew inscription: “Holy for the Lord. Know before whom you stand.”

There are numerous biblical quotations and inscriptions adorning the walls, pillasters of the inner and outer doorways chosen by Rabbi Vittorio Castiglioni (1840–1911), the author of the elegy in Hebrew and Italian honoring the inaguration of the Great Synogoue of Rome. Being able to see Rabbi Castiglioni’s inscriptions throughout the synagogue derives from the tradition of Hebrew liturgical poetry in Rome since the Middle Ages.

If you look around the synagogue, Dino goes on to explain, one will note that the other writings in the synagogue are from Psalms. For instance, the dome is colored with the colors of the rainbow and decorated with palm trees and Lebonese cedars mentioned in Psalm 92: The righteous bloom like a date palm; they thrive like cedar in Lebanon.

Dino Di Veroli is a member of the Jewish Community of Rome and belongs to an ancient family of the ghetto from the sixteenth century. As museum educator, Dino provides highly interactive synagoguese tours with visitors from all over the world. He enjoys bringing the history of the Roman Jewish community to life for all visitors wanting to learn about the Great Synagogue of Rome.