The 18th century synagogue in Siena, which suffered damage in an earthquake one year ago, has been placed among the 11 threatened heritage sites in Europe that have been shortlisted for Europa Nostra’s 7 Most Endangered program for 2024.
Located just off Siena’s expansive central Campo, the synagogue was inaugurated in 1786 as an extension of an earlier one, following the project of Giuseppe del Rosso. Since the earthquake, the sanctuary has been closed both for prayers and to visitors, though the synagogue building, which houses a small Jewish museum, remains open.
“The earthquake in February 2023 caused structural damage to the vault of the Synagogue of Siena, including the walls and the roof, which remain structurally unstable,” Europa Nostra states in the announcement.
Measures were promptly taken to limit access to the prayer hall. Its entrance is still roped off with a cord so that visitors and tourists can see the room without actually accessing. Religious services were moved to a small area in the women’s gallery on the second floor. All this poses a threat to tourism, on which the city of Siena greatly relies.
The community has proposed specific solutions for the restoration of the building, which is planned to unfold in two phases. The initial phase focuses on consolidating the vault and arches, while the subsequent phase entails replacing the roof. Within the prayer hall, restoration work will focus on the interior decorations of the vault, addressing detachments or cracks using plaster, stucco, and pictorial film. With approvals secured from local and national supervisory bodies, the project is set to start pending the acquisition of necessary funding.
Beyond structural improvements, the primary objective of the restoration is to re-establish the Synagogue of Siena as the community’s central place of worship. Inclusion in the 7 Most Endangered Programme would grant visibility in order to find funding and resources needed to carry out its restoration.
In September, the Jewish community of Florence, of which the small community in Siena is a branch, launched a fund-raising campaign seeking a total of €368,000 for the restoration.
The community secured funding for the first phase, thanks to grants from the David Berg Foundation (through the World Monuments Fund), the Società Israelitica della Misericordia di Siena, and the Fondazione Beni Culturali Ebraici in Italia. It has also received funding from the Leon Levy Foundation.
The 7 Most Endangered Programme is an awareness-raising program run by Europa Nostra in partnership with the European Investment Bank Institute. It also has the support of the Creative Europe programme of the European Union. Launched in 2013, it forms part of a civil society campaign to save Europe’s endangered heritage. It provides a grant of €10,000 per listed site.
The synagogue was nominated for the list by an individual member of Europa Nostra from France with the Jewish Community of Florence and the World Monuments Fund Spain.
Europa Nostra lobbies for monuments and heritage preservation, targets endangered sites and grants annual awards for restoration projects. It is a network of 250 member organizations across Europe, including heritage associations and foundations, plus 150 associated organizations (governmental bodies, local authorities and corporations) and also 1500 individual members.
Read the Europa Nostra announcement
Read our September 2023 post about the situation and fund-raising campaign