Jewish synagogue "Sinagoga Vecchia”

The presence of a community of Romaniote Jews in Corfu is attested from the 12th century, while in the early 17th century Sephardic Jews from Spain and Italy came to Corfu. The two communities lived together from 1622 in the so-called Ovriovouni, the Jewish quarter east of the New Fortress which is bounded today by Velissariou, Agias Sophias and Palaiologou St. In 1537 the first Sephardic Synagogue, the so-called Kahal Kadosh Italiano Corfiato or else Pulieza was destroyed. In its place, the so-called Vecchia or Midrash was built in Palaiologou St. In 1926 it was burnt down and rebuilt, to be completely destroyed again by the bombings of World War II in September 1943. A part of its wall is preserved among modern apartment buildings and has been declared a historical monument under Ministerial Decision issued by the Ministry of Culture/ΑΡΧ/Β1/Φ33/6697/137/18-2-1992 - Government Gazette 331/B/18-5-1992. The Romaniote community, after abandoning the synagogue Kahal Kadosh Tosavim or else Greca, built during the years of the British rule a new Synagogue, the so-called Nuova. It is located at 4 Velissariou St. and is the only surviving Synagogue in the city of Corfu. It is a 19th century building comprising arched windows and simple facades that was built on an older building. The ground floor houses the offices of the Jewish Community and the funeral hall. The worship area is located, as in most Venetian synagogues, on the first floor. As it is written on the sign at the entrance of the Synagogue, the writer Abraham Albert Cohen (1895-1981) took his first steps in the Synagogue quarter. References: https://kis.gr/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=43&Itemid=56 https://www.corfuhistory.eu/?p=169 https://www.corfuhistory.eu/?p=13530 https://www.hadassahmagazine.org/2012/02/28/jewish-traveler-corfu/