The Mikvah (or Jewish ritual bath) of Strasbourg is a historic site in Strasbourg, in the French department of

Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...

. The site is unique as it connects to the Jewish heritage of Strasbourg that dates back to the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

Location

The mikvah is located in a cave within a modern building at 20 rue des Charpentiers in the historic center of Strasbourg, midway between the Strabourg Cathedral and the Episcopal Palace of Strasbourg.

Discovery

The ritual bath has been listed as a monuments historique since November 15, 1985. It was discovered in 1985 during a 1984 renovation of a group of houses at the corner of Rue des Juifs and Rue des Charpentiers. The buildings housed the ISTRA printing company until the 1980s. The housing block was long known as being part of the perimeter of the Medieval Jewish life in Strasbourg. Oral traditions conserved the memory of the existence of a mikvah in this building (at 19 Rue des Juifs) to the point that in the 16th century the location was referred to as ''Zum Judenbad'', or the Jewish Bath. Other than these stories, all other information or memory had been lost to history until its rediscovery. Conscious of the risk that the planned demolition and renovation of the space would do to the ritual bath site, the Société d'Histoire des Israélites d'Alsace et de Lorraine (SHIAL) appealed to then Minister of Culture Jack Lang, and an agreement between the buyers and the public authorities was signed. The agreement allowed for a six-month stoppage in building work to organize an archaeological investigation of the site. The investigations brought to light the Mikvah site in its entirety. The site currently serves as a public mikvah within a synagogue on site. Another private mikvah exists within a private residence on Rue des Juifs. The monument is open for visits under certain conditions. Its opening to the public – along with the possibility of guided tours – is organized on certain days of the year by the Department of Culture for the City of Strasbourg.

History

The first Jews arrived in Strasbourg around 1150, coming from nearby German towns along the Palatinate, including

Mayence Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

Spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires a ...

, and

Worms Worms may refer to: *Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs Places *Worms, Germany Worms () is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, situated on the Upper Rhine about south-southwest of Frankfurt am Main. It had ...

. The mikvah was constructed a short time after the arrival of the community, around 1200. At the same time, the Jewish community in Strasbourg was flourishing, with community members working as merchants along European trade routes. The situation for the Jews in Strasbourg began to deteriorate at the beginning of the 14th century, due to economic competition from local bourgeoise and increased Jewish immigration from other areas. It worsened in 1347, when Jews were accused of having propagated the Black Death. In 1349, the synagogue in Strasbourg was pillaged and hundreds of Jews were massacred in the Jewish cemetery in town (now location of

Place de la République The Place de la République (known as the Place du Château d'Eau until 1879) is a square in Paris, located on the border between the 3rd, 10th and 11th arrondissements. The square has an area of .Warner, p. 250 Named after the First, Second an ...

). Survivors of the massacre were given the decision to either convert or flee. Some Jews decided to return to Strasbourg in 1362, but Strasbourg banned Jews from settling in the city in 1391, a ban that would stay in place for 400 years, only overturned after the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

. After the Jewish community was forced out of Strasbourg in the 1390s, the mikvah was turned into a

well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

. This well was found during excavation of the mikvah site.

Architecture

The Mikvah is an approximately 3m square room of grey

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

topped by a red brick barrel vault. At four corners of the room, near the upper part of the vault, are four Romanesque stone corbels. The basin at the center of the room can hold at least 500 liters of purified water, coming directly from primarily

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated ...

(rainwater can be used as mikvah water under Jewish law, but it is not relevant in the case of this particular mikvah). Today, the groundwater is no longer visible, as the

water table The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated. T ...

in that neighborhood is 8 meters below street level. At the center of the barrel vault, there is a circular zenith hole of about 0.9 meters. This hole is believed to be used for the collection of rainwater in addition to the groundwater. In Alsace, groundwater is easily accessible, thus the mikvah primarily uses these two sources for its water. The remains of a staircase of grey and pink sandstone remain visible at the mikvah. The staircase led from the entrance of the bath, at the basement level of the building, down to the water table. The last step of the staircase opens to the bath itself. Part of the steps in the staircase were reused in the construction of a well following the departure of the Jews from the building. Two niches are visible on the walls, used for the placement of candles. At the bottom of the basin lies a wooden structure of about 1.7 m by 1.5 m. This structure, whose interlocking angles are characteristic of the 11th or 12th century, was probably retaining formwork associated with the construction of the bath. The opening of the well found during the excavation of the area, was off-center in relation to the zenith hole at the top of the vault. This continues archaeological questions about the site. Work to clear the mikvah area has left the base of this well, represented by four large stone slabs 1 meter wide, 1.3 meters high and 12 cm thick. It is believed that the room next to the square room was used for people to undress before entering the Mikvah.

Location

Discovery

History

Architecture

See also

References

Further reading