The cemetaries

Acqui Terme – Cimitero: Via Salvadori 31

Acqui, city of ancient foundation, whose origins go back to the Roman age, was very flourishing in the Middle Age.
In the 17th century, during the wars of succession of the Monferrato between Savoia and Gonzaga, the Jews were 150 among a total population of approximately 3000 inhabitants.
In the 1800′s the Jewish population reached the 700 people, but decreased to 200 in 1899.
Nowadays no more Jews live in Acqui.

In 1768 the old cemetery had no room for more interments, thus the State allowed the Jews to acquire a land plot from a private. The purchasers for the Community were “Samuel Vita, Gioseppe Salvator son of Israel, Salvador son of Belomo, Zaccaria Salvadore and Anselmi, all five Ottolenghi of the Ghetto of this City”. Since then this plot of ground, encircled from mulberry trees, accommodates the mortal rests and the vestiges of an important Jewish past. Some of the tombstones are decorated with funerary symbols not related to the Jewish tradition, i.e. partly veiled urn of clear classic inspiration.