Overview
Via Giudecca and Via degli Ebrei are the heart of the ancient ghetto, inhabited until the end of the 15th century by one of the most numerous and prosperous Jewish communities in Sicily and whose origins date back to the flourishing medieval period when the city was at the centre of Mediterranean trade. At the time of the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, the community numbered about 2000 people and enjoyed special privileges: the first Jewish coral craftsmen, for example, had houses outside the ghetto and were free to move about the city. Today, the Jewish memory remains in the name of the main building, the Giudecca Palace, also known as "lo Spedaletto". It was built in the 16th century by the Ciambra family and later remodelled. The large arched portal remains, and a façade of diamond-pointed ashlar and Catalan-derived windows.
