The Scuola Spagnola, the synagogue of the Iberian Jews who arrived after their expulsion from Spain and Portugal, is the largest and most opulent of the Ghetto's five synagogues. Founded in the mid-16th century and grandly remodelled in the 1630s in a manner associated with Baldassare Longhena, it stands in the Ghetto Vecchio across the campiello from the Scuola Levantina.
Behind a plain exterior — synagogues in the Ghetto were forbidden to advertise themselves — the interior opens into a high oval gallery, dark wood, and a great bronze chandelier, with the bimah and the ark facing each other across the hall. Still used for services on the high holidays, it is the most impressive of the synagogues visited on the museum's tour.