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Obj. ID: 8871
Jewish Architecture
  Choral Ohel Yaakov Synagogue in Kaunas, Lithuania

© “Synagogues in Lithuania: A Catalogue” Archives, Photographer: Kazakauskaitė, Evelina, 2006

Quote from the book Cohen-Mushlin, Aliza, Sergey Kravtsov, Vladimir Levin, Giedrė Mickūnaitė, Jurgita Šiaučiūnaitė-Verbickienė (eds.), Synagogues in Lithuania. A Catalogue, vol. 1 (Vilnius: VIlnius Academy of Art Press, 2010):

The Ohel Yaakov (Tent of Jacob) Synagogue was erected on a plot bordered by streets on three sides: Ožeškienės Street in the southeast, Jeruzalės Lane in the southwest and Savanorių Avenue in the northwest. Thus the building has three façades visible from the street, and the roof with a tower crowned by a cupola can be seen from a distance.

On July 17, 1872, merchant Levin Barukh Minkovskii received permission for building a synagogue. In addition, an auxiliary wooden building was planned to be built in the synagogue courtyard on the side of formerSt. Petersburg Road(today Savanorių Avenue). Although the synagogue’s design is not signed, its architectural vocabulary allows it to be ascribed to Iustin N. Golinevich. The construction works were supervised by the architect of the Kaunas Province, Edmund von Mikwitz.

108 In 1873 Minkovskii presented the plot with the partly built synagogue to the Ohel Yaakov congregation and the plot became the property of the synagogue community in 1883. In 1893 a brick fence with a gate was built according to the design by engineer Piotr M. Dorofeevskii (renovated in 1999). In 1924 a protrusion instead of the northeastern apse was built, comprising a choir gallery on the first floor and a staircase leading to it. In 1937 a design for a staircase annex to be added at the northwestern façade was drawn up. However, a year later an annex of a different form was built.

The building was damaged during WWII. In all likelihood, it was then when the synagogue lost its cupola, which was restored in 2001.

The plastered brick synagogue is based on a rectangular ground plan with a staircase annex on its western side and a protrusion in the center of the northeastern façade. A tower-like structure with a cupola rises above the southwestern entrance façade and the hipped roof. The synagogue’s architecture combined a Neo-Baroque division of façades, Neo-Renaissance windows and a Neo-Moorish onion dome. The building is oriented towards northeast in order to align its side façade with Ožeškienės Street. Currently the synagogue is painted in blue and white.

Pilasters divide the side façades into seven bays, and the main and back façades into five bays. The pilasters reach the cornice running along the building at the top of the façades. The bays are decorated by round-headed arches on impost moldings; the arches are framed by rusticated archivolts and keystones. The arches comprise tall round-headed windows of so-called Venetian type, which shed light both on the ground floor and on the first floor women’ss gallery.

On the southwestern entrance façade the central bay with the main doorway is broader, and therefore the upper cornice is broken to accommodate the higher arch with a biforium. The main doorway is flanked by two lateral ones. The recently made doors are decorated with relief carvings. The façade has a high pediment with Baroque-like side volutes rising above the cornice. Behind the pediment a tower rises above the roof; originally it was topped by an onion dome, which was destroyed during WWII and replaced with a spherical cupola with a Star of David on its top in 2001. Another Star of David is inserted into the blind round-headed arch in the center of the pediment. Remnants of a painted Star of David and a Hebrew inscription reading כי ביתי בית תפילה יקרא לכל העמים (“for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people,” Is. 56:7) are visible above the central entrance door; two smaller Stars of David are painted above the lateral doors.

The opposite, northeastern façade is crowned by a scalloped pediment. Originally, it had a polygonal apse, containing the Torah ark in the interior, which was replaced in 1924 by a rectangular protrusion with its own gable roof. It reaches the height of the façade, so that the cornice is continued on its surface; its sides are decorated similarly to the façades but without archivolts. The northeastern side of the protrusion is blank and not plastered, since it is situated on the border of the synagogue’s plot. On the side of the northwestern façade a projecting annex built in 1938 contains a staircase leading to the women’s gallery; its façade is subdivided into three bays.

A small skylight is situated in the middle of the roof of the prayer hall. It has two small scalloped gables, resembling that of the northeastern façade, decorated with a Star of David. The skylight gives light to the prayer hall not only through its twin round-headed windows, reminiscent of the Tablets of the Law, but also through its glass roof. It is not clear when the skylight was built: it is not shown on the original design from 1872; a drawing of the interior from 1924 shows a skylight in the ceiling of the prayer hall, but of a different shape; that of the present skylight points to its relatively recent origins.

 

Summary and Remarks
Remarks

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Name/Title
Choral Ohel Yaakov Synagogue in Kaunas | Unknown
Object Detail
Monument Setting
Unknown
Date
1872
Synagogue active dates
Reconstruction dates
1893 - a brick fence; 1924; 1938; 2001
Artist/ Maker
Golinevich, Iustin N. (architect)
Mikwitz, Edmund von (architect)
|Iustin Golinevich was a designer, Edmund von Mikwi
Historical Origin
Unknown
Community type
Congregation
Unknown
Location
Lithuania | Kaunas County | Kaunas
| 13 E. Ožeškienės St.
Site
Unknown
Period
Unknown
Period Detail
Collection
Unknown |
Documentation / Research project
Unknown
Iconographical Subject
Unknown |
Textual Content
Unknown |
Languages of inscription
Unknown
Shape / Form
Unknown
Material / Technique
Material Stucture
Material Decoration
Material Bonding
Material Inscription
Material Additions
Material Cloth
Material Lining
Tesserae Arrangement
Density
Colors
Construction material
Brick
Measurements
Height
Length
Width
Depth
Circumference
Thickness
Diameter
Weight
Axis
Panel Measurements
Condition
Extant
Documented by CJA
Surveyed by CJA
Present Usage
Synagogue
Present Usage Details
Condition of Building Fabric
A (Good)
Architectural Significance type
Historical significance: Event/Period
Historical significance: Collective Memory/Folklore
Historical significance: Person
Architectural Significance: Style
Architectural Significance: Artistic Decoration

Wood carving, painting.

Urban significance
Significance Rating
3 (National)
0
Ornamentation
Custom
Contents
Codicology
Scribes
Script
Number of Lines
Ruling
Pricking
Quires
Catchwords
Hebrew Numeration
Blank Leaves
Direction/Location
Façade (main)
Endivances
Location of Torah Ark
Location of Apse
Location of Niche
Location of Reader's Desk
Location of Platform
Temp: Architecture Axis
Arrangement of Seats
Location of Women's Section
Direction Prayer
Northeast
Direction Toward Jerusalem
Coin
Coin Series
Coin Ruler
Coin Year
Denomination
Signature
Colophon
Scribal Notes
Watermark
Hallmark
Group
Group
Group
Group
Group
Trade Mark
Binding
Decoration Program
Suggested Reconsdivuction
History/Provenance
Main Surveys & Excavations
Sources

Cohen-Mushlin, Aliza, Sergey Kravtsov, Vladimir Levin, Giedrė Mickūnaitė, Jurgita Šiaučiūnaitė-Verbickienė (eds.), Synagogues in Lithuania. A Catalogue, 2 vols. (Vilnius: VIlnius Academy of Art Press, 2010-12)
Type
Documenter
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Author of description
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Architectural Drawings
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Computer Reconstruction
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Section Head
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Language Editor
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Donor
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Negative/Photo. No.
The following information on this monument will be completed:
Unknown |