The Jewish ghetto was in Via Petrarca, once called Calle del Tempio israelitico due to the presence of the synagogue. Its institution was ordered as early as 1717, but it was established much later than in other cities, in 1781, and remained in operation until the 19th century.

The goal was to confine the Jewish community to a well-defined area, in order to better control its activities, in particular usury loans, which harassed the poorer and more disadvantaged part of the population. The institution of the pawnshop in Gradisca had not managed to stem the problem.

Initially planned outside the fortress, with the mediation of the local ruling classes, interested in protecting the Jewish presence for their contribution to the trade, the ghetto was built inside the city walls.

The goal was to obtain the greatest capacity in the smallest possible space. Of the eight houses of the ghetto, their entrance doors, the school and the synagogue, only traces remain of the Morpurgo house, the residence of a Jewish family of cattle traders and pawnbrokers, and the basin of the synagogue, kept in the documentary museum.

In Gradisca there is still a Jewish cemetery, established in 1814 alongside the Catholic one.