Few traces of Jewish presence remain in San Daniele del Friuli today, despite the long duration of the settlement, which began in the 16th century. The most significant evidence is the isolated 18th-century Jewish cemetery, located near the Ripudio stream and Lake San Daniele-Ragogna in the area once known as “Prato della Merenda.”
Since the community’s origins, the Jews of San Daniele buried their dead in the cemeteries of Udine—in the ancient cemetery on Calle Agricola—and, in the 17th century, also in Conegliano. Only in the first half of the 18th century, a period of increased local Jewish life, did the community establish its own burial site. The land, initially leased for several decades before the enfranchisement, could be used exclusively for the residents of San Daniele; from 1751, burial was extended, for a fee, to Jews from other towns in Friuli, including Codroipo, Chiavris, and Spilimbergo, as well as other nearby towns.
Today, the burial area, secluded from the urban fabric, appears as a modest plot enclosed by a boundary wall and preserves over seventy stone tombstones. The steles and funerary monuments constitute a precious “registry” engraved in stone, a source of important historical, social, and economic information about the community. The complex was the subject of a recent study in the volume I cemiteri ebraici del Friuli edited by Mauro Perani, Pietro Ioly Zorattini and Antonio Spagnolo (Ed. La Giuntina, 2018) which examined its documentary and cultural value in depth.