The Italian Synagogue

A few steps from the Museum of Jewish Padua, you can visit the Italian Synagogue, the only one left of the three synagogues of the city, and still today the place of prayer for members of the city community. It was founded in 1548, perhaps to replace the previous Italian oratory in Piazza delle Legne.
 
The room is characterized by an elegant and refined decoration with marble mirrors and delicate stuccoes dating back to the neoclassical restoration of Beth ha Keneseth, whose taste and beauty of the squares of the ceiling, so close to the decorations of Caffè Pedrocchi, masterpiece of the Venetian Giuseppe Jappelli.
The seventeenth-century Aron ha-Kodesh (the sacred wardrobe) in beautiful and rich polychrome marble, is positioned on the east wall of the hall and turns towards Jerusalem.
On the opposite side it faces the Bimah (the lectern) made with the wood of a plane tree coming from the Botanical Garden of the city, shot down during a storm.
Along the perimeter of the room runs a late seventeenth-century boiserie with seats for the public; the upper band with marble mirrors dates back to the restoration of 1831 and replaces previous coatings in golden leather.