The Ghetto

The Jewish community in Cuneo was one of the oldest in Piedmont. It was already located between Contrada Mondovì and Via Chiusa Pesio around the mid-15th century and was mainly composed of Jews coming from Provence (France) as we can easily infer from their surnames, such as Cavaglion from Cavaillon, Foà from Foix or Momigliano from Montmélian. It was right on this site that the community started a small commercial activity and handicraft. The presence of the Jewish quarter, called “Giudecca”, is attested in December 1436, after the promulgation of the Statutes of Amedeo VIII (Statuti di Amedeo VIII).
The Ghetto was established in 1723 with the Royal Constitutions (Regie Costituzioni). Unlike the Jewish quarter, the gates of the Ghetto were locked from the outside from dusk to dawn to prevent the Jews from leaving it at night. The Jewish community was first permitted to live in this quarter which later expanded to cover the whole neighbourhood delimited by the streets Contrada Mondovì, Via Alba and Via Chiusa Pesio.
In 1774 there were 164 Jews living in Cuneo. In 1779, due to the growth of the Jewish community, it became almost impossible for about 215 Jews to live in such a restricted area. The engineer Francesco Gallo, who had already been assigned to define the perimeters of the Ghettos in Mondovì and Fossano, was probably asked to design the Ghetto area in Cuneo. Overhead passageways and corridors would then allow the Jews to move around and cross the streets within the Ghetto, which had to be kept locked.
The legal emancipation of the Italian Jewry started with the proclamation of the Albertine Statute (Statuto Albertino). After 1848 they were given equal civil and political rights and were eligible for civil and military offices. In the years that followed, however, the number of the Jewish community members gradually decreased as many families moved to larger cities.