Beautifully preserved part of town where Jewish communities lived since the Middle Ages caught our attention while visiting Prague this summer. I have read about this part of town in my wonderful Prague Guide book that never left my hands, which had descriptions of the history of Jewish population since their oppression in the 16th century to naming of the Jewish quarters "Josefov" after Josef II in the 18th century.
This part of town is very well known, as the Old Jewish Cemetery has been their burial grounds since 14oo's and is a popular tourist spot. As this was the only burial site permitted for Jews, they had to bury their loved ones on top of each other from the lack of space; there are over 12,000 gravestones in the cemetery, some 12 layers deep! Last burial was sometime in the 1800's. The cemetery is a very popular site for visits; people purchase tickets and walk through it admiring decorative gravestones and tombs. The cemetery was my number 2 site to visit in Prague, after the Cathedral, but unfortunately the lines were so long that after waiting for 30 min we decided that we will walk through the Quarters and skip the cemetery. Not visiting it was a great disappointment for me but I don't think I would get much out of it with all those people in there! Tourists... ;)
We had a wonderful time admiring the architecture of the Jewish Quarters, including the Old-New Synagogue standing there for over 700 years.
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