The Jewish site of worship and ritual in Montpellier (34)

Restored on its façade during the course of the 18^th century, the cluster of buildings on the rue Barralerie in Montpellier contains an historical Jewish site of worship and ritual, cited by major local historians. Before being classified as an historical monument in 2004, the site underwent an archaeological evaluation to determine its medieval potentialities in conservation, most notably, within the townhouse that belonged to a solicitor named Auteract, since acquired by the municipality.

During the 10^th century Montpellier was nothing more than a single, small, fortified community which underwent major reconstruction during the 13^th century, the period when the first wave of a Jewish community began to settle there. What resulted in the Jewish quarter created a collage of sorts of two primitive groupings of houses separated by an alleyway, itself a major axis connecting the noblemen’s palace to the city’s markets. And aligned with these buildings is the synagogue, the mikveh and an alms house.

In the midst of these changes, beginning in the 13^th century, the old fragment composed of small units was entirely overhauled to make for larger parcels to house patrician dwellings. This was the case of the synagogue that has a façade of over 10 meters. This situation generated a number of constraints and a need for some adaptation, hence the rather surprising floor plan of the synagogue which reminds us of what are presumed to be two pre-existing houses, or again the curious, far from homogenous, character of the buildings containing the mikveh and the synagogue—again substantiating the hypothesis that they were once attached. Confirmation of this is suggested in the orientation of the parcel of land and the presence of a juncture between the two façades, as well as the protrusion of the upper rooms and roofs and the absence of any direct communication between the two lots. On the other hand, the elements they have in common testify to a programme of transforming the space to make for a communal ensemble: the alignment of the three doors along the alleyway that passes along the synagogue, the lower hall and mikveh, the decision to dig out the basement that holds the ritual baths of the mikveh, but also the lower hall under the synagogue, which is on the same floor level and has the same height from the base of the vault, both areas showing the same technique of vaulting (figure 1).

The construction that houses the mikveh has only been preserved on the height of the first floor. It was entirely copied on the upper level in the 16^th century, but in the basement, on the level of the alleyway, there is a function room whose purpose is still unknown, as well as a narrow staircase leading to the changing rooms with niches and benches, and a bath, dug out more than 6 meters under the street level (figure 2).

The building housing the synagogue shows a complete and homogenous medieval elevation plan comprised of a vast lower hall in the basement, two square floors and an open attic. There is direct access between the lower hall and the synagogue, with the intermediary of a staircase and an underpass built into the vault (figure 3). From the alleyway, a three-pointed door opens into the place of worship, which is all of one piece; although it may have supported a gallery as the presence of the two corner arches suggest (figure 4). The particularity of this layout is that it required a system for joining the different areas, some type of covering and lighting, and likewise for the room that extends in one piece up to the first floor, about 8 meters higher, which confirms the absence of holes in the floor and the large twin openings higher up in the floor.

The size of the Jewish community up to its exile in 1306 translates topographically by a synagogue implanted, as was the rule, on the upper level of the city near a water source—in this case the water table—by the presence of outbuildings, the religious character of the mikveh, ritual baths for purification, the charitable nature of the alms house and the didactic nature of the school. 

A more in-depth study of this townhouse has been scheduled, which will allow for a better understanding of these medieval lots, of domestic Montpelier architecture and more particularly of the mode of implantation, the history and customs of the Jewish community in Montpellier through the exceptional conservation of this ensemble of ritual medieval buildings.