Maisel Synagogue

Maisel Synagogue tickets and tours: which one to book

The Maisel Synagogue is run by the Jewish Museum in Prague, and you cannot buy a ticket for it alone. Entry comes with the museum's combined ticket, which also covers the Pinkas Synagogue with its memorial to the Holocaust victims of Bohemia and Moravia, the Klausen Synagogue, the Ceremonial Hall, the Spanish Synagogue and the Old Jewish Cemetery. The Old-New Synagogue, still the community's working synagogue, needs a separate ticket or a more expensive pass that adds it. Tickets are sold online and at several cash desks in Josefov, and the ticket is valid for one visit to each site rather than for timed entry. Guided walking tours of the Jewish Quarter are the other main option, and for a first visit they are worth considering.

A guide links the scattered buildings into one story, from the medieval ghetto to the slum clearance of the late 19th century and the Holocaust, and many tours include the entry ticket. Some combine Josefov with a walk through the Old Town or a broader city tour; others add the Spanish Synagogue concerts in the evening. Check whether the Old-New Synagogue is included before you book. If you go independently, buy the ticket online to avoid queues at the busiest cash desk beside the Pinkas Synagogue. The page lists any GetYourGuide tours whose route passes the synagogue.

Visiting Maisel Synagogue: what to see and how to behave

Mordechai Maisel, the wealthy mayor of the Jewish town and financier at the court of Emperor Rudolf II, obtained imperial permission to build his own synagogue, and it was consecrated in 1592. For a century it was the largest and grandest building in the Prague ghetto. Fire in 1689 destroyed much of the quarter, and the synagogue was rebuilt shorter; another fire followed in 1754. What you see today owes most to the remodelling by the architect Alfred Grotte around 1900, which gave it its Neo-Gothic look with pointed windows and a stepped facade. During the Nazi occupation the building served as a store for property seized from Jewish communities across the Czech lands, and after the war it became a depository of the Jewish Museum.

Restored after 1989, it reopened in 1996, and the most recent renovation in 2014 and 2015 brought back the decorative painting of the early 20th century. Inside, a single tall nave with side aisles holds an exhibition on the history of the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia from their first settlement in the early Middle Ages to the reforms of the Enlightenment. Look for the silver Torah ornaments and finials, embroidered Torah mantles and curtains, and the objects associated with Maisel himself. Information panels and interactive screens are in English as well as Czech. Photography inside is restricted; follow the signs. The synagogue stands on Maiselova street in Josefov, a few minutes on foot from Old Town Square and Staromestska metro station.

Maisel Synagogue: opening hours, ceremonies and the best time to go

The Jewish Museum sites open every day except Saturday, the Sabbath, and Jewish holidays, when everything is closed. Hours are generally from 9 am to late afternoon, a little longer in summer than in winter; check the museum website before you travel, especially in autumn when several holidays fall close together. The Jewish Quarter is busy from mid-morning, when large tour groups arrive.

Come at opening time, or after about 3 pm, and start with the Maisel or Spanish Synagogue before the queues build at the Pinkas Synagogue and the cemetery. Weekdays in winter are the quietest. Allow 30 to 40 minutes for the Maisel Synagogue and at least two and a half hours for the whole museum circuit. In 2019 the synagogue had over 320,000 visitors, so do not expect solitude in high season. Combine it with the rest of Josefov, the Old Town Square and the Rudolfinum on the river, or with an evening concert in the Spanish Synagogue.