Obj. ID: 25114
Jewish Architecture Old Upper Synagogue in Mikulov, Czech Republic
11 image(s)
sub-set tree:
Rabbi Jehuda ben Bezalel Liva (Löw) was rabbi here in 1553 – 1573, before moving to Prague.
Interior painitings. Baroque Torah ark.
The oldest, and only remaining Jewish religious building in Mikulov is the Upper Synagogue (also known as the Old or Home synagogue).
The synagogue was built in 1550. And a ground-floor women's prayer room was built onto the south side in 1688 and 1689. After a fire in 1719 the synagogue was rebuilt and renovated. The main hall was covered by four Baroque domes, joined by a four-columned support which forms the canopy over the bimah from which the Torah is read. The reconstruction was probably directed by Johann Christian Oedtl, an architect in the service of the Dietrichsteins. The Aron ha-Kodesh was built by sculptor Ignaz Lengelacher. The Synagogue was used for religious services until 1938, after which the building was devastated during the Nazi occupation and neglected under Communism.
In the 1980s, the Mikulov museum rebuilt the structure for use as an exhibition and concert hall. In 2014 the synagogue was fully restored.
Dorfman, Rivka and Ben-Zion. Synagogues without Jews and the Communities that Built and Used Them (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 2000)
Fiedler, Jiří. Jewish Sights of Bohemia and Moravia (Prague:Sefer, 1991)
Klenovský, Jaroslav, Ludmila Hájková, Brány spravedlivých: Synagogy Moravy, Slezska a Čech / The Gates of the Righteous: Synagogues in Moravia, Silesia and Bohemia (Ústí nad Labem: Foto Studio H, 2012)
Klenovský, Jaroslav. Židovské památky Moravy a Slezska - Jewish Monuments of Moravia and Silesia (Brno, 2001)