Új utca was known as Zsidó utca (Jewish St) until the Jews were evicted from Sopron in 1526 after being accused of plotting with Turks. It features a remnant of the medieval community’s existence – the Old Synagogue, built in the 14th century and containing two rooms, one for each sex (note the women’s windows along the west wall). The main room contains a medieval ‘holy of holies’, with geometric designs and trees carved in stone, and some incongruous-looking stained-glass windows. The inscriptions on the walls date from 1490. There’s a reconstructed mikvah (ritual bath) in the courtyard as well as a plaque commemorating the devastation of Sopron’s Jewish community under the Nazis in 1944.
