The Jewish Cemetery

Address and contacts

Via della Canalina, 1 - 42123 Reggio nell'Emilia
0039 0522 437327 - Istoreco

Opening times

Since there isn't the Jewish comunity anymore in Reggio Emilia, the cemetery today is seldom used for burials and the visit is possible only on the Jewish Culture Day in September or upon previous arrangement with Istoreco.

How to get there

Reggio nell'Emilia

Description

After the Napoleon's Edict of Saint Cloud in 1804 ("... no burial will take place in churches, synagogues, hospitals ... nor within the count of towns and villages ..."), even the Jewish community of Reggio must move its cemetery placed next to the ghetto in the current Via San Rocco.
In 1808 the Extra-moenia Jewish Cemetery was founded, surrounded by walls (the so-called first enclosure), where the deceased and the gravestones were transferred from the previous place, and where new burials were carried out.

The first enclosure is not divided into zones but it's a common field, with the gravestones arranged without particular order. In 1853 the cemetery was expanded with an addition towards the bank of the Crostolo stream, thus creating two separate fences: the second is divided into fields with small shrines and family tombs that bring elements of Jewish tradition and influences of the town's burial tradition, demonstration of the deep rooting of the community in the social context.
At the center of the east wall stands the mortuary chapel with a neoclassical façade on whose triangular pediment appear the four Hebrew letters "he", initials of the Kohelet verse "vanity of the vanities, all is vanity": probably it was designed by architect Pietro Marchelli who would have also designed the main temple in via dell'Aquila, inaugurated in 1858.