Obj. ID: 16117
Architecture Merchants' Synagogue in Bila Tserkva, Ukraine
In its original form, the Merchant’s Synagogue on Teatral’naia Street closely conforms to the split-story synagogue form. The third story addition and alterations have obliterated the internal form, but it remains discernable from the exterior. The two-story women’s gallery and its entryway – its bricked-up doorway on the southeast facade still visible -- retain much of their architectural decoration, though the new entrance on the southwest wall effaced much of the decoration there. This section is characterized on the lower floor by window treatments with heavy, flat moldings. The second story, separated from the lower floors by a string course, has more elaborate window treatments. The window hoods are smaller, but for that more decorated; they are visibly joined into a single long and elaborate cornice.
The door is framed by pilasters which continue vertically and frame the first window of the second story. The sanctuary space is treated more monumentally. The windows (originally twelve) have large, round-headed moldings and are separated by brick pilasters capped on the second story by a powerfully molded cornice. The interior has been so renovated as to render almost any observations meaningless. In all, the building is an intelligent urban essay in a typologically interesting style.
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