Obj. ID: 9247
Jewish Architecture  Beit Midrash in Šilalė, Lithuania

The beit midrash was built in the so-called “brick style” in 1910–14 and has been captured in an interwar photograph. This picture shows the northwestern and northeastern façades. The photograph shows that the northwestern façade was symmetrical, framed with corner pilasters and divided by molded stringcourses into three tiers on the ground and first floors as well as the gable. The main entrance with a folding door was located in the center, sided by pairs of segment-headed windows. The first-floor windows were also segment-headed, and there were decorative panels beneath the window sills. Three segmentheaded windows with brickwork surrounds were placed in the triangular gable, with an oculus glazed in a form of the Star of David set at its apex. A small arched niche seen in the brickwork of the gable’s northern corner suggests that a symmetrical one was placed in the opposite corner. On the northeastern façade, a lesene emphasizes the division into the prayer hall and the vestibule with the first-floor women’s section. The tall segment-headed windows of the hall were overhung with molded pediments and underscored by decorative panels beneath their sills. A molded cornice crowned this part of the façade.

In the Soviet period a furniture store operated in the beit midrash. In the 1990s the building was transformed beyond recognition. In 2008 it was a part of the shopping center and only the northeastern façade facingKudirkos Streethas not been built up. Four windows of the prayer hall, although heavily transformed, are preserved. The current opening on the northwestern façade could correspond to the original one. The gable roof rising above northwestern part of today’s structure indicates the silhouette of the former beit midrash. As to the interior, the vestibule on the northwest is perhaps the only relic from the original planning.