Obj. ID: 8900
Jewish Architecture  Synagogue in Krekenava, Lithuania

The synagogue (also called the beit midrash) was presumably built in the first half of the 19th century on a rectangular plan from redbrick and stone. It is a compact mass, which does not reveal its interior divisions on the exterior. The form of the original roof is unknown, since the brick gables were presumably made after the fire of 1897, and the gable roof itself is from post-WWII times. A lower annex of yellow brick with a gable roof was attached to the eastern façade presumably in the 1980s; at the same time the western façade was probably transformed.

In 2008, the synagogue was unplastered, except for the western façade.

The main western façade facing the street is symmetrical, with redbrick lesenes on the corners flanking the plastered middle part. Its original fenestration is unknown. Currently there is a projecting redbrick portal with a segment-headed doorway in its center. The forms of the portal are repeated by small shallow segment-headed niches encircled with redbrick molded framing with triangular pediments, set up on both sides of the façade. The original unplastered redbrick gable is decorated by three lesenes, which frame two rectangular windows; the central lesene is terminated with a round-headed arch. The southern and northern façades are divided by lesenes into four segment-headed bays, each including a segmentheaded window. A segment-headed, currently blocked doorway cuts the eastern lesene of the westernmost bay. The eastern façade is partly hidden behind a modern one-storey annex. However, the corner lesenes and fragments of wide segment-headed bays are visible in the upper part of the façade. The façade is crowned with a triangular gable divided by pilasters and thin engaged columns of different width, all made from redbrick. The corners of the gable are accentuated by a blind pointed arch filled with twin lancets; an oculus is set into a square niche in the center of the gable. All façades are surrounded by a dentiled cornice consisting of three stepped rows of brick. Nothing is preserved of the original interior.

After WWII the building was converted into a granary and later into a gym, which still functions today. The original purpose of the building is noted in a memorial plaque in the wall.