Jewish cemetery in Revere (Italy) “reappears” after being closed off for decades in abandoned factory grounds.

source: jewish-heritage-europe.eu

The severely neglected Jewish cemetery in the town of Revere, in northern Italy, recently “reappeared” after the factory that absorbed it into its grounds in the 1970s was demolished. Now the Jewish community of Mantova, in association with civic and heritage authorities, is looking for funds to restore it and include it in a tourist route of the province’s Jewish sites.  

“If we don’t intervene soon, the cemetery’s walls risk collapsing,” architect David Palterer, speaking on behalf of the Mantova Jewish community, which owns the Revere cemetery, told JHE. In order to start restoration works, we need about €25,000, which would give us the opportunity to restore the walls and replace the wooden gate with a new one made out of steel, that will allow people to look inside.

The small square shaped cemetery, established in 1809 and located in the town’s outskirts, is surrounded by red-brick walls, and contains 23 matzevot. The first burial took place in 1831, and the latest in 1906. The Jewish community had already almost completely vanished from the town by the 1920s, and the last Jewish family was murdered during the Holocaust.

In the mid-1970s, the Jewish community of Mantova reached an agreement with a local glass-making company, whose factory bordered the cemetery, so that the cemetery was absorbed in newly enlarged industrial premises, without being destroyed. In the 1990s, the factory closed and remained abandoned.

In 2020, the factory was finally demolished, and the cemetery “reappeared” in the town’s landscape, after being hidden and inaccessible for almost 50 years.

See more information about the Jewish cemetery in Revere at Jewish Heritage Europe website