Articles

Nowadays the Jewish Museum, this temple is the oldest synagogue in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was built by the first Sephardic settlers who arrived in Sarajevo after being expelled from Spain and Portugal in 1492. 

When the grand vizier Syavush Pasha came to Sarajevo in 1581, the local representatives of the Sublime Porte asked him to separate the Jews from the rest of the population, for “they lit too many fires and made too much noise”. Syavush Pasha ordered the construction of communitarian housing for the Jews, with a courtyard and synagogue. The Velika Avlija (Old Temple Synagogue) offered forty-six bedrooms to the city’s poorest Jews, while the rest of the community lived in the other mahallahs (districts) of the city. Enjoying freedom of movement from that point on, Jews in Sarajevo never lived in ghettos, strictly speaking.

Destroyed by a fire in 1879, the Velika Avlija has never been rebuilt, with the exception of its synagogue. It houses today the small Jewish Museum of Sarajevo. The museum's collection gives you an insight into the life of the Sarajevo Jews, their rich culture and tradition. 

It features various collections of clothing and religious objects, some of which originated in Spain. One of them is the Haggadah o Sarajevo, a famous fourteenth-century illumination, recounts the parting of the Red Sea. It was brought to Bosnia by Catalonian Jews. After many trials and tribulations, it has ended its journey in Sarajevo, where it is preserved at the  National Museum of the Republic.