Old Synagogue

From the Scarbantia Forum, if you carry on walking down Új utca - known as Zsidó utca (Jewish St) until the Jews were evicted from Sopron in 1526 - you'll reach the Old Synagogue. Just down the street is the New Synagogue. Both were built in the 14th century, and are among the greatest Jewish Gothic monuments in Europe and are unique in Hungary. Now a museum, the Old Synagogue contains two rooms, one for each sex (note the women's windows along the west wall).

The main room contains a medieval 'holy of holies' with geometric designs and trees carved in stone, and some ugly new stained-glass windows. The inscriptions on the walls date from 1490. There's a reconstructed mikvah (ritual bath) in the courtyard.