Img. ID: 23415
  Architecture  

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Exterior:

The prayer hall, located on the northern side of the compound, is adjacent to the open-air courtyard, and is a rectangular basilica of a single floor with a central second clearstorey. Both spaces are reached through the western façade, which borders the alley.  

Interior:

The basilica comprises a rectangular space surrounded on its east, west and south by colonnades of round columns carrying horse-shoe arches. The columns support a square clearstorey raised above the central space, occupied by the large reader's desk, thus creating a centralised liturgical space.

The single Torah ark is located in the eastern wall, forming a central east-west axis with the teivah and the main entrance (fig. 2). The sittings are on built benches, which run along the walls and around the reader's desk.

Two cylindrical columns, which were added in 1853, support the ceiling and are built on either side of the reader’s desk (see: Suggested Reconstruction).

The clearstorey provides light through twelve windows, three on each side. Each window is marked by a Star of David enclosing the name of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel (based on the Book of Zohar part 2, 251:1; main photograph) on the eastern wall: "Reuben, Simeon, Levi". "Judah, Issachar, Zebulun" are depicted on the northern wall, while "Dan, Naphtali, Gad" are on the western wall. The last three tribes "Asher, Joseph and Benjamin" are placed on the southern wall.

A wooden compartment is built in front of the entrance door. Another entrance to an unidentified rectangular space is on the hall's north-western corner, adjacent to four blind arches, possibly part of the surrounding corridor, which was later blocked. A door leading to a back corridor is set to the right of the eastern wall.

The entire building is painted in blue and white. The walls are in blue with white lintels and cornices. The grooved twisted columns are blue and topped by trapezoid white capitals decorated with a branch in each corner. The Torah ark, reader’s desk and benches are painted in pink and white.

Suggested Reconstruction

The traveler Benjamin the Second, who visited the island in 1853, reports that a flood, which occurred in the same year, destroyed three-thirds of the island. This flood caused severe damage to the roofs of private dwellings and synagogues (Slouschz, Ha-i Pely, p. 157). Among the ceilings which had collapsed was the ceiling of the Small prayer hall. The synagogue was renovated and the wooden ceiling was replaced by a new one, adding two central columns in order to support and strengthen the ceiling.

It is possible that during this renovation the northern arcade was blocked and supplementary rooms were added. 

Following new fashions the synagogue was repainted during the 1950s. The situation of the synagogue during the last paintings is demonstrated in a photograph taken by Frank Scherschel, the photographer of Time-Life Magazine.