The Jewish Ghetto (Rome)

Vatican City / Rome
 ghetto, historic district, jews
From Wikipedia:

In 1555, Pope Paul IV created the Roman Ghetto and issued papal bull "Cum nimis absurdum", forcing Jews to live in a specified area. The area of Rome chosen for the ghetto was the most undesirable quarter of the city, owing to constant flooding by the Tiber River.

At the time of its founding, the four-block area was designated to contain roughly 2,000 inhabitants. However, over the years, the Jewish community grew, which caused severe overcrowding. Since the area could not expand horizontally (the ghetto was surrounded by high walls), the Jews built vertical additions to their houses, which blocked the sun from reaching the already dank and narrow streets. Life in the Roman Ghetto was one of crushing poverty, due to the severe restrictions placed upon the professions that Jews were allowed to perform.

This was the last of the original ghettos to be abolished in Western Europe; not until 1870, when the kingdom of Italy conquered Rome from the Pope, was the Ghetto finally opened, with the walls themselves being torn down in 1888.

Due to the three hundred plus years of isolation from the rest of the city, the Jews of the Roman Ghetto developed their own dialect, known as Giudeo-romanesco, which differs from the dialect of the rest of the city in its preservation of 16th-century dialectical forms and its liberal use of romanized Hebrew words.

For further information, follow the URL below.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Ghetto
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   41°53'35"N   12°28'41"E

Comments

  • It seems that the outline of the Ghetto is way too large! On the following page is an excellent map of the Ghetto, but it is difficult to translate the outline to Wikimapia because almost the old Buildings don't exist anymore. http://www.laboratorioroma.it/Sguardi/Ghetto/guida_ghetto.htm
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