The Old Synagogue stands on Szeroka Street in Kazimierz. The article gives conflicting construction dates of 1407, 1492 and the 15th century. It was rebuilt in 1570, and the Italian architect Mateo Gucci is credited with the design. It is a fortress synagogue, with brick and masonry walls, heavy buttressing, loopholes and high windows borrowed from military architecture. The style is Gothic and Mannerist.
General Tadeusz Kościuszko spoke here in 1794. The Nazis desecrated it in 1939 and looted its artwork, and in 1943 they executed 30 Polish hostages at its wall. It was renovated from 1956 to 1959.
Since 1958 it has been a branch of the Historical Museum of Kraków. It is a Historic Monument of Poland and part of a UNESCO site.
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