Ancient Ostia and the Synagogue ruins

A half-day tour of Ostia Antica and its synagogue — the oldest synagogue known in Europe, and the only one from its period still standing.

It was in use from the first century CE, which makes it older than the Colosseum. It was found by accident in 1961, during construction work on the road to Fiumicino airport, and almost nobody visits it.

Why the building matters

Ostia was Rome’s port, and the Jewish presence there is the physical evidence for something otherwise known only from texts: that a Jewish community was living and worshipping in Italy while the Second Temple was still standing in Jerusalem.

The structure was enlarged in the fourth century, and the additions are readable on the ground — an aedicula for the Torah scrolls, with menorah reliefs carved on the corbels, plus an oven and a hall that suggest communal meals. You can stand in the doorway and see how a synagogue was organised eighteen centuries ago, which is not possible anywhere else in western Europe.

What the visit covers

• The Synagogue of Ostia Antica, with the ark and the menorah corbels
• The Theatre and the Square of the Guilds behind it
• The Baths of Neptune and their black-and-white mosaics
• The Forum, the warehouses, the apartment blocks and the thermopolium — an ancient Roman city that was abandoned rather than built over, which is why so much of it survives

Practical information

• Getting there: about 30 minutes from central Rome on the Roma–Lido line, or by private transfer. It is a half day, not a full one
• The synagogue is at the far edge of the site, near the ancient shoreline, roughly a kilometre from the entrance. Plenty of visitors reach Ostia and never get to it because they run out of time or heat tolerance
• Wear proper shoes. The site is large, uneven and largely unshaded
• Closed on Mondays

The fuller history is in the guide to Ancient Ostia and its Synagogue. Below, a virtual reconstruction of how the building looked.