Contributions from Camera Etrusca staff and participants.

     La Piccola Gerusalemme,The Little Jerusalem

Pitigliano from the Jewish Cemetery  (ph. Sylvia Abually)

One rounds a bend beside the church of La Madonna delle Grazie  and there it is, one of the most striking views in Italy,Pitigliano. It lies on the knife-edge of a hill with extremely steep cliffs on either side, the classic form of the Etruscan hill town. 

Our guide was waiting for us at the gates of the town by the fountain,punctual to the dot, this was Signora Elena Servi one of the three remaining Jews still living in Pitigliano. A  good-looking and sprightly 70 year old she is the custodian of the museum and synagogue,  but whereas these are open to the public on a daily basis the cemetery is not . What is more  the cemetery is surrounded by  an extremely high wall on one side and precipitous cliffs on the others. Apparently permanently locked, this secret garden of a cemetery, observable from afar but frustratingly invisible from close to, had enticed me for years. Now,  camera in hand, I at last found myself at the gates.
On the walk down to the cemetery , Signora Elena in her chatty and informal way filled us in a little on the history of the Jewish community . The Jews have had a continuous presence in Pitigliano since at least 1556 when a papal bull 'discouraged' them from living in the papal states. Thirty or so families moved over the border into the  Orsini dukedom in Tuscany to found the first stable community in Pitigliano. Life could not have been easy for them as they were allotted very little space and by all accounts lived in  conditions more akin to an unsanitary prison than a ghetto. Things improved considerably when  the illustrious Cosimo I dei Medici, extended his dominion over southern Tuscany and the community  was allowed to expand its boundaries and numbers and began to prosper. A wave of Jewish refugees from nearby Castro  arrived in 1649 after its sacking and demolition by the papal army (the extraordinary story of this 'Rennaissance Pompei', buried in the woods for 400 years, will be covered in a future edition of Camera Etrusca magazine). 

Signora Elena unlocked the iron gates and led us down the winding steps, tall cypresses on either side. She brushed away the pine needles, wondering out load why the council were unable to keep the place tidy, while from time to time pointing out the tombs of her ancestors as well as her closer relatives: her sister, her husband; "this" she said, pointing to a plain marble panel " is where I shall be" ; it was not just a cemetery, this was family history. There seemed to be little more than half a dozen surnames in the whole cemetery. She pointed out  a tomb whose broken column represented a young life cut short in 1900: this young man's grief stricken parents had paid for the planting of the cypresses.

the touching tomb of a five year old girl on the left

At the bottom of the avenue the cemetery widens and the tombs are laid out in rows, some very plain whilst others have elaborate sculptures - not strictly correct according to  Jewish writ Signora Elena informs us, but who, she asks could object to such a touching monument as this: an almost life-size sculpture of a five year-old girl?.

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http://www.pitigliano-toscana.com/