Obj. ID: 8952
Jewish Architecture Synagogue at 43 Trakų St. in Šiauliai, Lithuania
The former synagogue is located between Vilniaus and Trakų Streets in the courtyard of the “Verpstas” knitting factory. In all likelihood, the building stands on the plot shown on the plan from 1874. Judging from its architecture, the synagogue was constructed at the turn of the 19th century in the so-called “brick style.” Some of its original forms are captured in photographs from 1920 and 1948 as well as in a drawing by Gerardas Bagdonavičius (1901–86).
Pilasters divide the synagogue’s elaborate Neo-Baroque northwestern façade into three unequal bays and a stringcourse separates its two registers. The segment-headed windows of the first floor are topped with undulating pediments. The façade is crowned with a sumptuous gable containing a pair of segmentheaded windows and a blind oculus above them in the center; the scalloped edges of the gable are decorated with turrets. Architecture of the side façades is rather modest. The northeastern façade is divided into five unequal bays by pilasters and crowned with a dentilled cornice. The second bay from the right apparently contains a portal. To the left, three tall segment-headed windows with brick moldings give light to the prayer hall. To the right, a blind arch repeats the form of the windows of the prayer hall. Evidently, the southwestern façade mirrored the northeastern one. However, by 1948 large original windows were replaced with two rows of rather small rectangular ones and an annex covered with a low hipped tin roof was attached to the second bay from the left. The blind arch, dentilled cornice, and two rows of windows survive to this day. The later drawing by Bagdonavičius shows that the orthwestern façade has retained its tripartite structure and general outline, but much of the decoration has been removed. Judging from the absence of ground-floor windows and an addition of a Star of David marking the gable’s top in the drawing instead of the existing oculus. Bagdonavičius sketched the former synagogue from memory.
In 2010 the building of the former synagogue is being extended eastwards and surrounded with various annexes on three sides. The main and side façades retain their original divisions, but the majority of decorative elements are lost and the northwestern gable has received a triangular form.
The interior of the synagogue has been destroyed.
Text from Aliza Cohen-Mushlin, Sergey Kravtsov, Vladimir Levin, Giedrė Mickūnaitė and Jurgita Šiaučiūnaitė-Verbickienė (eds.), Synagogues in Lithuania: A Catalogue. vol. 2 (Vilnius: Vilnius Academy of Art Press, 2012).
sub-set tree:
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)