A long-lost chapter of the town’s history is hidden beneath the Kapellenplatz square in Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Modern ground-penetrating radar technology has now made the floor plan of the town’s first synagogue visible – without digging any further into the ground. The results show not only the impressive size of the building, but also the former importance of the medieval Jewish community.
During archaeological work on Kapellenplatz in Rothenburg ob der Tauber last year, a surprising discovery came to light: the foundations of the town’s oldest synagogue. This was the first archaeological evidence of a building that had previously only been known from written sources. The Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments (BLfD) has now completed its investigations of the ground monument – and has precisely reconstructed the floor plan of the medieval building using modern ground penetrating radar technology.
The researchers used ground penetrating radar to make the structure of the walls hidden in the ground visible. “Ground penetrating radar can be used to create a kind of X-ray image of the uppermost layers of soil,” explains Mathias Pfeil, General Conservator of the BLfD. In this way, new insights can be gained without disturbing the ground monument with further excavations. The measurements supplemented the previous excavation results and made it possible to fully record the building, which had previously only been partially uncovered. Among other things, the annex for the Torah shrine and the position of the bima – the central reading desk in the synagogue – could be localized.
The walls of the synagogue are around one meter thick and form a rectangular floor plan measuring around 16 by 11 meters. This corresponds to the typical ratio of around 3:2, which can also be found in other Romanesque Ashkenazi synagogues, for example in Cologne, Worms or Speyer. The single-nave hall covered around 180 square meters. Together with an adjoining women’s section to the south, the interior had an area of around 210 square meters. According to estimates, the synagogue thus offered space for around 320 to 380 people – the majority of the city’s Jewish community at the time. According to the researchers, the building is therefore one of the largest known synagogues of the high and late Middle Ages and underlines Rothenburg’s importance as a Jewish city of learning in the medieval empire.
The radar images show that the synagogue was built free-standing on today’s Kapellenplatz and was apparently aligned with the surrounding buildings. A protruding rectangular extension can be seen on the east side. It presumably housed the Torah shrine – a type of construction also known from synagogues in Frankfurt am Main, Speyer and Worms. The existence of this annex indicates that the synagogue was built before the year 1300, as there is no evidence of such additions in later centuries. In the center of the building, the researchers also identified a rectangular structure measuring around four by three meters – presumably the remains of the foundations of the former bima.
Later changes to the building can also be traced through the measurements. In the early 15th century, the former synagogue was converted into a Christian chapel. The core building was retained and from then on served as a nave. A polygonal choir in the Gothic style was built on the east side. The reconstructed floor plan of the later St. Mary’s Chapel matches historical representations from the 18th century – a further indication of how modern technology and historical sources can combine to paint a more accurate picture of the past.
The results of the BLfD ‘s ground penetrating radar investigations therefore not only provide new insights into the building history of the site. They also illustrate the former importance of Rothenburg’s Jewish community – and remind us of its violent end in 1298, when more than 450 Jews were murdered in a pogrom.
