Samuel Gruber wrote about this synagogue on his blog:
"According to Czech synagogue historian Jaroslav Klenovsky, author of The Gates of the righteous: Synagogues in Moravia, Silesia and Bohemia, the Baroque synagogue was probably founded in 1763-64 through the conversion of a private house that had previously contained a prayer room. In 1792 the synagogue was apparently rebuilt and enlarged in a more Rococo style, and the hall was expanded again in 1865. The building was further modified in 1912, from when the Ark wall stained glass windows are dated, and again in 1917 and after a fire in 1920, in 1924-27. Services were held here until the fall of 1941. The Jews of Rakovník were deported to Terezin in 1942 and then on to death camps where most perished. Before the deportations though 239 documents, 30 books, and 150 ritual objects were transferred to the Central Jewish Museum in Prague where they are today. There is a small memorial plaque to those who perished affixed to the front of the synagogue, but it is so covered with vines it is hard to see and read. But inside the museum there is explanatory information available in several languages.
After the World War II the building was used as a prayer hall by the Hussite Church and in 1950 it was converted into am art gallery and concert hall. A comprehensive restoration program took place form 1991 to 1994. It was thus one of the earliest of the Czech synagogue conserved, restored or refurbished after the fall of Communism.
The synagogue occupies the east half of a building that once held the Jewish school and the rabbi's house. Women and men entered the building from a single entrance into a vaulted vestibule from which separate doors led to the left and down some steps into the main prayer room, and to the right to stairs to the women's balcony, which sat above the vestibule. The arched door to the men's space is from 1887-88 and has a gilt Hebrew inscription from Psalms 118:20 (This is the gate of the Lord, through which the righteous shall enter). Next to this portal is a stone shell-shaped tzedakah box with a metal lid.
In the prayer hall the Ark is set on a platform at a higher level and then reached by four wooden steps, and the Ark wall facade south-east, but the present floor level may be he result of changes when the sanctuary was changed into a concert venue. The portal-type Ark has four columns, two of which are twisted. It is topped with baldachin and crown.
The sanctuary is rectangular but looks square, thanks to the eight-section cupola which unites the space. The cupola is topped by cylindrical lantern. Pilasters with gilded capitals support an open work cornice with stucco and painted strips of vegetal ornamentation reaching to the cupola. These strips divide the pumpkin-dome into eight sections with gilded relief stars on a painted blue background.
Above the four sanctuary arches that cut into the vault segments and don't surmount windows, are set elaborate cartouches within which are painted small biblical vignettes, all of which seem to depict primary elements given divine attributes. Noah's Ark afloat on the sea represents water animated with divine purpose. Earth is depicted as a mound or mountain, presumably Sinai, but given the presence of the Ark, it could be Ararat. A scene of fire may represent the burning bush, or it could be the Pillar of Fire that denotes God's presence at the Mishkan. The fourth scene seems to show the Pillar of Smoke, between tow descending clouds that almost take on the shape of heavenly hands. "
