Medieval Jewish House of Prayer

The exhibition space of the Medieval Jewish House of Prayer commemorates the medieval and early modern Jewish community of Buda on the ground floor of the residential building at 26 Táncsics Mihály Street. During the reconstruction after the destruction of World War II, painted images with Hebrew inscriptions were discovered on the vault of the ground floor of the building in 1964, and the exhibition space was created after the reconstruction of the room of medieval origin.

The Jewish community had been present in the city since its foundation in the mid-13th century. Their first quarter was located on the road from the present-day White Gate to the Royal Palace, which they had to abandon in the early 15th century. They then moved to the northern part of today’s Táncsics Mihály Street, the contemporary Jewish Street, where the community lived with a short interruption until 1686.

The exhibition includes panels showing life in the medieval and Ottoman Jewish quarters of Buda Castle, as well as the synagogues in the Castle Quarter that have been excavated and are currently closed to the public. You can also see some of the architectural highlights of the synagogue found at 23 Táncsics Mihály Street, and a collection of gravestones from the Jewish population of the past.

Today the exhibition site also serves as a place of worship and is used as the Synagogue of Budavár by the United Hungarian Israelite Congregation.