The synagogue was the only public building built by the Romans for the Jewish community. While the elders of the village reciprocated in kindness and pleaded earnestly with Jesus asking him to heal the centurion's servant (Luke 7:1-10).
In the synagogue of Capernaum Jesus preached and performed miracles. Jesus was confronted by a demoniac while teaching here (Mark 1:21-27). "They went as far as Capernaum, and as soon as the sabbath came he went to the synagogue and began to teach.
The dating of this synagogue is debated, but it is clearly later than the first century. Excavations have revealed a synagogue from the time of Jesus with walls made of worked stone that are 4 feet thick. These earlier walls were preserved up to 3 feet high and then used as the foundation for the later synagogue. Today the ruins are owned by two churches: the Franciscans control the western portion with the synagogue and the Greek Orthodox's property is marked by the white church with red domes.
Nearby, within a few hundred yards of the synagogue, is the site believed to be the remains of the house where Jesus ministered to Peter's mother-in-law (Mark :29-31 As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them).
The Christian community of Capernaum paid a special attention to the house of Simon Peter. It was Jesus himself who had chosen that house as his home in Capernaum. In the same way that Capernaum became "the town of Jesus", Peter's house could be called rightly "the house of Jesus". When we keep in mind the proverbial conciseness of the Gospels, we are immediately struck by their numerous references to the house of Peter (Mk 1:29-34; Mt 8:14-17; Lk 4:38-41).
There are several details which recent archaeological discoveries can clarify in a concrete way. The house visited by Jesus was only some 30 m south of the synagogue.
It was a large house precisely in fact that it consisted of several roofed rooms clustering around a spacious courtyard. We are therefore not surprised when we read in the Gospels that the same house was shared by three families, namely by the families of Peter, of his brother Andrew and of Peter's mother-in-law. Actually this was the standard pattern of the private houses in the living quarters of Capernaum.
We read that "the whole town came crowding round the door". This detail clearly suggests that a large space was available in front of the house. This is the case indeed. The rediscovered house was along the main NS street of the village and an additional open space was between the spacious street and the doorway leading to the courtyard of the house. The mention of the people gathered even in front of the door is a literary reference to Mc 1:33. The Greek expression "en oikoi" can be translated either as in a house, or at home. The second rendering is here recommended. In other words, the healing of the paralytic took place in Peter's house where Jesus lived. The lowering of the paralytic from the stripped roof is not strange at all in the context of the rediscovered living quarters of Capernaum, where indeed the one storey rooms were covered by light roofs reached through a flight of steps from the courtyard (Mk 2:1-4; Mt 9:1-18; Lk 5:17-26).
Another passage depicts two families of Jesus, i. e. his relatives waiting outside, and his followers sitting around him in the house. In the redactional stage of St. Marc the contrast between those who are outside and those who are inside the house, betrays ecclesial-christological dimensions, meaning those who are inside or outside the Christian community. In some way the house of Jesus in Capernaum i.e. the house of Peter, receives here the connotations of a domus-ecclesia (Mk 3:20-21 and 31-35; Mt 12:46-50; Lk 8:10-21).
(The above information is taken from http://www.mountainsprings.org/userfiles/file/Capernaum%20Report.pdf)
Interior of the Catholic Church built over the house of Peter (enclosed in glass in the center, see photo below) is modeled after the original Byzantine Church which stood there.
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