A different legend draws curious tourists to the ancient shul’s attic: it is said to host the remains of the Maharal’s golem
Few places tempt thrill-seekers more than the mysterious attic in Prague’s Altneuschul. Completed in the year 1270, the Altneuschul is the oldest functioning shul in Europe. According to local lore, angels brought stones from the Beis Hamikdash to build the shul in Prague on condition that they be returned when the Beis Hamikdash is rebuilt. But a different legend draws curious tourists to the ancient shul’s attic: it is said to host the remains of the Maharal’s golem.
A common version of the legend has the city’s Jews under mortal threat from a blood libel during the rule of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. To protect the community, Rav Yehuda Loew (1520–1609), known to posterity as the Maharal of Prague, formed a golem out of clay from the banks of the Vltava River, summoning mystical forces to bring it to life. The golem patrolled the ghetto, using his powers to become invisible and call spirits from the dead.
As the story goes, the golem eventually became uncontrollable and the Maharal was forced to end his mission, hiding the remains in the Altneuschul attic, where some believe they still lie today. When the attic was renovated in 1883, however, no evidence of the golem was found. But a 1907 report in the St. Louis Jewish Voice, citing Rabbi Markus Hirsch (then chief rabbi of Prague), contended that the old shamash of the Altneuschul testified that he helped bury the golem’s remains, along with the rest of the shul genizah, decades earlier.
Admittance to the Altneuschul attic is rarely granted to visitors, but film crews and scholars over the last 40 years have established that there’s nothing there of substance.
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