Obj. ID: 24294
Jewish Architecture  Synagogue in Březnice, Czech Republic

Synagogue in Breznice, Czech Republic, 1725 - Drawings

Synagogue in Březnice - Interior

Samuel D. Gruber described the synagogue on his blog:

"Březnice is an important example of an 18th-century synagogue and also represents a change in the 19th century (including more space for women) and in the 20th century (new wall paintings and stained glass windows). Overall, the restoration attempt refers to the latest period of synagogue use [...] as with almost all preservation projects, we have something new. The restored building is an amalgam  [...] The bimah is only an approximation, there was probably more seating around the bimah and in the sanctuary, the walls may have had more decoration - including prayer, dedication or memorial inscriptions, and there may have been rails, lamps and other metalwork around the Ark. Based on other synagogues of the period, the interior may have seemed more cluttered for use. Still, the overall architectural impression is probably correct.

The modest-sized synagogue served as a spiritual, physical, and aesthetic oasis set in the heart of the ghetto, which itself was near the heart of the town.

The main hall in the synagogue’s northern part features a barrel-vaulted ceiling with lunettes and a separate entrance. Men entered into the sanctuary through a projecting doorway into a vestibule under the women's gallery, and on axis with the bimah and Ark. There is also a smaller door which entered the sanctuary at the southwest corner from a vaulted hallway. This is a traditional arrangement, similar to what we see at the Altneushul in Prague.

Women entered through a more modest doorway, also on the west wall, but flush to the wall without any attention-grabbing extension. This door is used by the public today and leads into the vaulted hallway parallel with the sanctuary axis, which divided the building in two,  with the small doorway into the sanctuary on the left and a stairway to an upper floor on the right. Upstairs there was a one-room school and access to the women's gallery. It is a fairly generous stair by the standards of the time, with a wide passage and relatively low rises for the east ascent.

At first, the women's gallery occupied only the west side of the hall, where women would look toward the Ark and the Hebrew inscription with the verse “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18). They would also have a good view of the painted ceiling. 

A second space was added in the 19th century on the east side, too. This has two spaces in the from which women could view the sanctuary, but behind a larger area was open above the vault of the downstairs hallway. This area is now used for temporary exhibition and is closed off form the rest of the prayer hall, but it was large enough even to accommodate its own female prayer leader. Since the sanctuary itself was not enlarged, this new space perhaps indicates that more women were attending the synagogue, even if the population overall was not expanding. Presumably the benches in place now are not original, so it is hard to know the seating arrangement - but even with the expanded women's space there would only be comfortable seating for between 15-20 women in all.

The women’s gallery originally ran along the southern side; the balcony on the western side was probably built in 1874, when the bimah was moved to the east and new rows of benches were added.

The early 20th-century stained-glass windows are the work of inventor Emanuel Červenka, the son of the Březnice shamash, who dedicated them to his parents Moses and Katerina. and the decorative wall paintings are by  painter Ladislav Kuba."

Source: http://samgrubersjewishartmonuments.blogspot.com/2018/10/bzrenice-czech-republic-where-were-women.html