Obj. ID: 34652
Architecture Shaar Hashamayim Synagogue in Cairo, Egypt
For additional Diarna documentation see https://diarna.org/exhibits/the-synagogues-of-cairo-and-alexandria-egypt-selected-sites/
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The synagogue is situated in ‘Adly (formerly Magrabi) Street in the Ismailiyya Quarter and was built between 1898 and 1905. Up to the 1940s it was also known as Temple Ismailiyya. The building was renovated in 1922 after a fire and again in 1940; in 1980 another fire broke out. [Taragan, 2009]
The dome is not visible from the street.
The synagogue "was designed by the architectural firm of Maurice Joseph Cattaui (Cattaoui, Cattawi, Cattavi, 1874– ?) and Eduard Matasek (1867–1912) in 1899, and built in 1902–04. Cattaui belonged to a respected Egyptian Jewish family which traces its roots back to the eighth century. He had studied architecture at Atelier Lambert of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, which he entered in 1893. Matasek was a Vienna-born Roman Catholic. He never formally studied architecture. He apprenticed in the office of his father, master builder Josef Matasek, and later worked for the highly successful architects Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer in Vienna. Eduard Matasek moved to Cairo in 1892. Cattaui and Matasek designed a large number of buildings in belle époque Cairo." [Kravtsov, 2008, p. 31].
The overall style was Art Nouveau, charged with retrospective (neo-Egyptian and neo-Assyrian) elements. The Sha‘ar ha-Shamayim Synagogue’s exterior referred to the reconstruction of the Temple offered by Charles Chipiez - "the “Egyptian” pylons flanking the recessed central field, the “Assyrian” embattled edges, the recessed central field, numerous reliefs of palm trees and pomegranates, cavetto cornice, and the double scrolls of volutes were borrowed from this model" [Kravtsov, 2008, pp. 31-32]. The reliefs of a Shield of David and Tablets of the Law emphasized the Jewish identity of the edifice.
"The patrons and architects chose the Neo Pharaonic style because it was identified with European Cairo, with everything that represented progress in Cairo... Through this building the wealthy, educated, Egyptianized Jews of Cairo in fact conveyed the values of Europe of the liberal, enlightened and cosmopolitan period. [...] The Jewish community, which built Sha’ar Hashamayim, were Egyptians to all intents and purposes and Jews only in their religion. They sought to express their power and wealth by building a big and impressive synagogue. It is clear that they sought to integrate it into accepted Cairene architecture, and yet at the same time they searched for forms that would express their religious exclusiveness as Jews." [Taragan, 2009, pp. 46-47]
Kravtsov, Sergey. “Reconstruction of the Temple by Charles Chipiez and Its Applications in Architecture.” Ars Judaica, no. 4 (2008): 25–42., https://www.academia.edu/470975/_Reconstruction_of_the_Temple_by_Charles_Chipiez_and_Its_Applications_in_Architecture_ (accessed March 24, 2025)
Taragan, Hana. “Batei Kneset.” In Mitzraim, ed. Nahem Ilan (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East; The Center for Research on the History and Culture of Polish Jews, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2008): 139-150.
Taragan, Hana. “The ‘Gate of Heaven’ (Sha’ar Hashamayim) Synagogue in Cairo (1898-1905): On the Contextualization of Jewish Communal Architecture.” Journal of Jewish Identities 2, no. 1 (2009): 31–53.