The Old Synagogue occupies the southern edge of Kazimierz, the Krakow district where Jewish life was concentrated for centuries. Its origins are medieval, and it is the oldest synagogue structure preserved in Poland. After a fire, it was rebuilt in the sixteenth century by Italian masters working in Krakow, who gave the prayer hall its Renaissance vaulting and its distinctive attic parapet, an unusual meeting of Jewish liturgical requirements and Italian building practice. The interior retains the wrought-iron bimah at its centre and the ark set into the eastern wall. Emptied and desecrated during the German occupation, the building was restored after the war and now serves as a museum of the history and customs of Krakow's Jews, part of the city museum. It stands within the historic centre of Krakow inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and remains one of the essential sites for understanding Jewish Central Europe before its destruction.
