St. Anne's Church (

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

: Chiesa di Sant’Anna) is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

located in the town of

Trani, Apulia Trani () is a seaport of Apulia, in southern Italy, on the Adriatic Sea, by railway west-northwest of Bari. It is one of the capital cities of the Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani. History Overview The city of ''Turenum'' appears for the fir ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. Originally, it was built as the Scolagrande Synagogue by the Italian–Jewish community of Apulia during 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 a ...

; the structure houses now the Jewish Section of the Diocesan Museum of Trani.

History

The church building was one of four synagogues in Trani converted to churches in 1380, when the 310 Jews remaining in the city were forcibly converted to Christianity. The four confiscated synagogues were renamed Santa Maria in Scolanova (now the

Scolanova Synagogue The Scolanova Synagogue (Judeo-Italian languages, Judeo-Italian for new synagogue) is a Middle Ages, medieval synagogue in Trani, Apulia, Trani, Italy. It was built as a synagogue in the 13th century, confiscated by the church during a wave of a ...

,) San Leonardo Abate, San Pietro Martire. San Pietro was later demolished.Sacerdoti, pp. 186–89"The Italian Synagogue through the Ages", Noemi Cassuto, in ''Synagogue Without Jews and the Communities That Used and Built Them'', Rivka and Ben-Zion Dorfman, Jewish Publication Society, 2000, p. 301. San Leonardo has undergone such extensive renovation that little of the synagogue building survives. Originally known as the ''Scolagrande Synagogue,'' the building was renamed Santi Quirico e Giovita after it was confiscated for use as a church, and later renamed Sant'Anna. A medieval plaque on the northern wall describes an early renovation of the synagogue: "In the year 5007 after the creation, this sanctuary was built by a group of friends of the congregation, with a high decorated dome, a window providing light and new doors for the closure; the floor relaid and seats installed for the choir. May their piety be remembered before Him Who dwells in the splendid heavens." The date translates to 1247 CE.Sacerdoti, pp. 186–89

Architecture

The Scolagrande synagogue was an almost square, Byzantine-style domed, masonry building, 38 by 40 feet, formed by four huge arched walls supporting a 26-foot high dome. The arch of the western wall opens into a semi-circular niche supporting an arched dome thought to have once contained the '' bimah''. This would have been an early version of the plan later widely adopted by Sephardic synagogues in which the ''bimah'' is on the western wall and the Ark on the eastern wall separated by the length of the room. The church was restored in 1841, in 1880 and in 1978. It features paintings of scenes from the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament.)Wikipedia Italian :it:Chiesa di Sant’Anna (Trani)

References

Sources

* {{coord missing, Italy Buildings and structures in Trani Byzantine synagogues Medieval synagogues Synagogues in Trani Conversion of non-Christian religious buildings and structures into churches 13th-century synagogues