Old Great Synagogue (Brest)
The Old Great Synagogue in Brest , a Belarusian city in Breszkaya Woblasz, was the largest and most magnificent synagogue in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania .
history
The synagogue was built in 1568. In 1832 it had to be demolished because the authorities of the Russian Empire built a fortress here. The Jewish community received financial compensation and built the Choral Synagogue .
architecture
Representations of the building are only preserved on a city map from 1824, on which a large rectangular structure can be seen, and a copper engraving by Erik Dahlberg from the mid-16th century. A map and the city panorama can be seen on it.
According to this, the synagogue was a large square building with internal dimensions of around 16 m × 16 m. This size strongly suggests that the vault had to be supported and that it was either one of the first synagogues with a supporting bima or one of the first nine-field synagogues (in which the bima stood between four large pillars).
Originally the building consisted only of this one main room, which was crowned by an attic . At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, additions were added on three sides, which also contained the women's prayer rooms.
See also
References
- ↑ Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka: Heaven's Gates. Masonry synagogues in the territories of the former Polish - Lithuania Commonwealth. Page 196. Polish Institute of World Art Studies & POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw 2017, ISBN 978-83-942344-3-0 . Description.
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