Scuola Ponentina
The Spanish Synagogue—Italian Scola Ponentina, also known locally as Scuola Spagnola—is one of the five synagogues established inside the Venetian ghetto, and it shows how faith adapted to strict rules. Its Baroque design was made by Baldassare (Baldassarre) Longhena, and the synagogue was completed in 1580 in a four-story yellow stone building. This congregation traces back to Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in the 1490s, who reached Venice—often via Amsterdam, Livorno, or Ferrara—and then established the synagogue in the 1550s. Because it was a clandestine synagogue, it was tolerated only if it was concealed so the exterior looked like an ordinary building, even though the interior is richly decorated. …
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