Photo: Markus Köllner · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mittelalterliche Mikwe

Small documentation centre of the Museen der Stadt Bamberg at the site of a 15th-century Jewish ritual bath; open on Sundays, free admission.

Opening hoursFree admission

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About the museum

In recent years the “Quartier an den Stadtmauern”, a new neighbourhood with flats, shops and accommodation, has been built along the old town wall in Bamberg's island town. Remains of the town fortifications from the 13th and 15th centuries and several listed buildings have survived on the site, among them a mikveh, a Jewish ritual bath from the first third of the 15th century, and a Baroque house from the 18th century that is documented as having had Jewish residents.

To make these traces of Jewish life accessible, the Museen der Stadt Bamberg set up a small documentation centre at the place where they were found. The staircase leading down into the late medieval mikveh has been preserved; seven steps are exposed, while the others were filled in again for structural reasons. The immersion pool itself is attested archaeologically but lies beneath an outer wall of the building and therefore remains unexcavated in the ground.

A film in German and English tells the history of the Jewish quarter in this part of town up to the 18th century. The mikveh is regarded as the oldest still visible monument of Bamberg's Jewish community.

Highlights

Exposed staircase of a mikveh from the early 15th century
View through a glass balustrade onto the seven exposed steps
Explanatory film on the history of the Jewish quarter (German and English)
Oldest visible testimony of the Jewish community in Bamberg

Permanent exhibition

Dokumentationszentrum Mikwe – The exposed staircase of the late medieval ritual bath, with an explanatory film on the Jewish quarter by the town wall up to the 18th century.

Operated by: Museen der Stadt Bamberg