In fall 2007, graduate student Chiara Lodi, under the guidance of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Parma, undertook the challenge of surveying the synagogue and some of its architectural details in order to make accurate models to use for demonstration and educational purposes. Reverse Engineering and Rapid Prototyping technologies thanks to the CRP’s know-how were employed because they enable the creation of a virtual and also a real gallery where sculptures and architectural details can be viewed in 3D.

It seems fitting to define the meaning of the word Synagogue before starting to analyse the building: Synagogue: from the Greek συν + αγω (syn + ago), “with” + “gathering” from which the term συναγωγη is derived, a place of gathering, hence synagogue.

Historical Events
After they were thrown out of Spain in 1492, many Jews reached Modena where, in 1630 the Plague erupted. In those times of terrible crises and difficulties due to famine, wars and widespread misery, everyone, including the Duke, borrowed money from the Jewish pawnshops banks pawning their belongings. The plague did not spare the Jews and decimated their number but they still had a lot of items pawned that belonged to dead Christians. The Conservatives requested a law to require such items (without any money passing hands) and to have measures against Jews who possessed “grandi quantità di oro e d’argento, e mobilie, che non vi sarà mai che ne riscuota” (“great quantities of gold and silver as well as furniture, with no one alive to claim them”).
Thus, in 1638 the Estensi, who had hemmed and hawed till then, ended up by giving in to what the people and the catholic church demanded and set up the Modena ghetto by the will of Duke Francis I. This was the beginning of a dark period which lasted for more than 200 years.
In 1859 all the persecuting laws were definitively abolished and the ghetto was opened. The Jews of Modena once again had rights equal to those of all the other townsfolk and it was subsequently decided to build a Synagogue where they could officiate freely without harassment or restrictions and which would be a “worthy and dignified building”.
On 29th June 1869, Major Cesare Rovighi, a person of note in the Modena Jewish community, wrote to the Ornato Commission of the Modena Town-Hall: ‘I have the honour of presenting…a drawing for the building of a new Israeli temple in Contrada Coltellini’, on behalf of the Commission for erecting the new Temple’.
With his request he enclosed the drawing signed by the designer, Ludovico Maglietta.
Several alterations were made to the original design up until the final one was drawn up and the temple built.