Mikwe

Mikwe in Erfurt is a medieval Jewish ritual bath in the city’s historic Jewish quarter. Limestone walls enclose its vaulted interior. Flowing water from the nearby Gera River once fed the bath. Women used it for ritual purification after menstruation or childbirth.

Written records from the mid-thirteenth century show that the Jewish community paid taxes for the bath to the bishop and later the city. Jews and Christians lived beside it in a densely settled district. After the Jewish expulsion from Erfurt in fourteen fifty-three, the bath was filled and converted into a cellar. A city fire in fourteen seventy-two brought further changes, while cellar use continued into the twentieth century. Archaeological excavations rediscovered the site in two thousand seven, and it now forms part of Erfurt’s UNESCO World Heritage sites. A ceiling window in the protective structure reveals the bath during guided tours, with wheelchair access available.