Mezuzah from the Oppenheim House, parchment, 19th-20th c.

A mezuzah is a scroll of parchment inscribed with passages from the Torah (Book of Deuteronomy), slipped into a case and affixed to the doorposts of a Jewish home. During the renovation of the building we are currently in, the Oppenheim House, from 2013 to 2017, two mezuzot were found: one in a damaged case and the other as a loose scroll. They were hidden under a layer of plaster near doorframes on this storey of the building where you are currently standing. Was someone trying to protect them from destruction? We have no way of knowing. One thing is certain: these items testify to the complicated history of this house, which changed ownership multiple times over the centuries.