History of The Jews in Trieste - Museums

Museums

Several museums in Trieste shed further light on local Jewish culture and history:

• The Museum of the Jewish Community of Trieste "Carlo e Vera Wagner" (Via del Monte, 5, Telephone: +39.040.633819, Fax: +39.040.371226) was opened in 1993 in a building that used to house a small synagogue. Currently the museum holds many objects of Jewish ritual art belonging to Community, collected partly as a result of the dismantlement of the three Synagogues (or 'Scole') of Trieste after the inauguration of the greatest Temple. The collections are made up of objects in silver, various fabrics, documents and books that testify of Jewish family life and Synagogue rituals. The museum consists of varied spaces, insides and outside.
• The Morpurgo Municipal Museum (via Imbriani, 5 tel. 040636969) occupies a huge apartment in the mansion built in 1875 by the Christian architect Giovanni Berlam for the brothers Carlo Marco and Giacomo Morpurgo and their families. It presents a fascinating picture of how Trieste's upper crust of magnates and financiers lived. The Morpurgo brothers were born in Gorizia, north of Trieste, and were the sons of a man who was the caretaker of Gorizia's synagogue and a kosher butcher. Born in 1827, Carlo Marco Morpurgo became a banker, financier and businessman who eventually was knighted by the Habsburgs in 1869. The museum includes room after room whose opulent furnishings bear witness to the wealth, taste and luxurious lifestyle of the family—a sort of 19th century version of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. The Hall of Music is particularly remarkable.
• Risiera di San Sabba Civic Museum