The mikvah at the old Jewish Court in Speyer was an interesting place to visit. I have never seen a mikvah before and it was nice that I would be visiting the oldest one in Europe. There was a large Jewish community here in Speyer and they have an impact in the community. They set up structures in cities in the region that it was important enough to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The ShUM Sites of Speyer, Worms and Mainz is spread out over these cities and I visited the site here in Speyer.
The mikvah is by far the most interesting structure here in this Jewish court complex. There are actually other structures here but it was almost impossible to tell what they were if ordinary people like me would look at them. The rest of the structures are in ruins so you might ha a wall here or window there but not entire structures. Apparently, there was an old synagogue here which happens to be the oldest structure here in the complex. The mikvah would have come after that. Finally there is was an old religious school called a yeshiva. Like the old synagogue, there isn’t much left of the yeshiva apart from some walls. There are depictions of the structures in the nearby museum but it would still have been nice to actually see it intact.
[xmlgm {http://www.worldwanderings.net/kml/JewishCourtSpeyer.kmz} zoom=19]