Tempio Israelitico

In Italy, Tempio Israelitico rises as a compact rectangular synagogue marked by four corner towers and bulbous domes. Twisted columns frame the portico, beneath a large rose window on the façade. Enrico Petiti designed this monumental building, which opened in 1884 after Alessandro Antonelli’s earlier project proved too costly.

An incendiary bomb gutted the stuccoed interior on 20 November 1942, leaving only the outer walls standing. Reconstruction from 1945 to 1949 preserved the shell but simplified its decoration. Later, Giorgio Olivetti created the Tempio piccolo beneath the main hall, an intimate amphitheatre synagogue inaugurated in 1970. Its seventeenth-century wooden aron and tevah came from Chieri’s baroque synagogue. Silver, textiles, and liturgical objects fill the ritual-art museum, alongside a library of about 13,000 volumes.

Dark-painted ark doors carry gilded emblems, while wartime-persecution documents connect the collections with Jewish memory. The active community numbers roughly 900 people, and the complex remains wheelchair accessible.