I had superficially visited the Speyer components of this WHS way back in September 2010. However, after inscription, I revisited Speyer in October 2021 specifically focusing on the ShUM sites in Speyer, namely the Medieval synagogue and ritual bath (mikvah) and the ShPIRA museum with some of the most important gravestones from the cemetery and the Lingenfeld Treasure, a mere 200 metres or so from the Speyer Cathedral. These three sites together are nicknamed Judenhof or Jewish courtyard and are open to the public everyday from 1st April till 31st October (10:00 to 17:00) and Monday to Saturday from 1st November to 31st March (10:00-16:00).

Medieval Speyer was home to one of the most important Jewish communities north of the Alps. In the 11th century, Jewish merchants and bankers came to Speyer from Italy and France. 1084, the year when Bishop Rudiger Hutzmann offered refuge to Jews who fled Mainz, marks the beginning of a Jewish community in Speyer. He placed the refugees under his protection and granted them special rights.

The Jewish community of Speyer (ShPIRA in Hebrew) existed for more than 400 years. Well into the 13th century, scholars came to the Rhine from far and wide to study with the wise men or sages of Speyer. By the 14th century, however, the coexistence of Jews and Christians, which until then had been largely peaceful, was marred by anti-Jewish sentiment. Around 1500, the history of the Medieval Jewish community of Speyer came to an end; the reasons for the decline and extinction of the community are not fully known.

As early as 1529, the municipal authorities were already using the former Jewish synagogue as an arsenal. In 1689, when Speyer was ravaged in the Palatine War of Succession, the former Jewish house of worship was also destroyed, leaving only ruins and rubble. The synagogue began to be built in the Romanesque style by Christian craftsmen around 1100, and it was consecrated in 1104. Around 1250, the synagogue was redesigned in the Gothic style, and a women's prayer hall was added. Later on, the flat roof of the women's hall was replaced by a vaulted ceiling, and buttresses were added to absorb the additional pressure on the exterior walls.

A masoned recess is still visible in the eastern wall of the original synagogue, where the Torah shrine would have been, and above it is a small round window dating back to 1104 and the remains of a larger round window above it. Left and right of the large round window are the jambs of the Gothic windows added during the alterations around 1250. At the opposite end of the synagogue, the west wall is part of an adjacent building erected around 1900; the Romanesque windows here are copies - the originals can be seen inside the museum. Incredibly, the women's prayer hall was excavated as late as 2001 and after restoration it was opened to the public.

The "mikvah" or Jewish ritual bath of Speyer, which was built around 1120, is the oldest of its kind north of the Alps. The Hebrew word means "a collecting place for water". Ritual cleansing after periods of impurity required "living" water, for instance river or spring water, groundwater or rainwater. The immersion pool of the Speyer mikvah is located some 10 metres below today's street level in the city centre, near the synagogue. There are some old pillars and capitals adorning the staircase and antechamber downstairs worth noting, and the water would do with some cleaning as it can get smelly and attracts quite a number of mosquitoes in summer. To me, the ritual bath was the only true highlight of this rather weak WHS, at least in Speyer. However, I still hope to visit the remaining components in Worms and Mainz one day. I would recommend downloading the ShUM-Sites on the Rhine App to get more out of your visit.