The 17th century

In the middle of the 17th century, even Trieste bankers and merchants suffer the hostility spread by the Counter-Reformation.

The board of patricians, the judges and the rectors frequently request the expulsion of the Jewish population from Trieste. Emperor Leopold I, however, ignores public opinion and the requests of the clergy, deciding to put up a ghetto to separate the Jewish population from the other inhabitants.

The Jews succeed in  the ghetto being constructed in the commercial centre of Trieste and not on the outskirts of the town which would have meant their economic ruin.

In 1696 according to  imperial decree the ghetto is set up in the Riborgo area, closed in by a high wall with three gateways which remained locked from sunset to dawn, controlled by Christian guards paid by the Jewish community.