Old Synagogue (Tarnów)

Coordinates: 50 ° 0 ′ 48 ″  N , 20 ° 59 ′ 22.3 ″  E

Remains of the synagogue

The Old Synagogue , now known as the Bima Memorial of the Old Synagogue ( Bima Synagogi Starej in Polish ), was located between Piekarska and Żydowska streets and the city wall in the Galician city ​​of Tarnów . The bima is the last remaining part of the synagogue .

history

The first wooden synagogue in Tarnow probably came from the end of the 16th century. A fire in the city in 1622 probably also destroyed this building. A stone synagogue was built around 1630.

Sometime between 1814 and 1878 a two-story extension was built along the west side. On the lower floor was a vestibule and above it were the women's prayer rooms. The roof (the original shape of which is not known), as well as the interior and exterior of the building, have been redesigned.

The synagogue, like the New Synagogue , was burned down by the Nazis in occupied Poland on November 9, 1939 (one year after the November pogroms in the German Reich in 1938 ). The parts of the building that the fire did not destroy were demolished in 1942. Only the supporting bima remained; In 1987 it was given a roof to stop further deterioration. The place was later expanded to become a memorial.

architecture

The building originally only consisted of the square main hall (internal dimensions 14 × 14 m). It is not clear whether the women were allowed to pray there or were completely excluded. The hall was a meter lower than the outside area. In the middle of the hall stood the bima, which supported the vault.

The windows were relatively small and high. On the south and north sides there were three and on the east wall two, between which the Torah shrine was located. The number of windows on the west side is not known; but there were probably three.

The stone Torah shrine had the shape of a portal and was built in the Mannerist style. During renovations in the 19th century, it was given a neo-Gothic frame.

References

1. ↑ Maria Piechotka, Kazimierz Piechotka: Heaven's Gates. Masonry synagogues in the territories of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Polish Institute of World Art Studies & POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw 2017, ISBN 978-83-942344-3-0 , pages 112, 212 ff.

Web links

Commons : Memorial of the Old Synagogue (Tarnów)  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Remembrance of the murdered Jews of Tarnów on Memorialmuseums.org .
• K. Marek Trusz: Bima Synagogi Starej. Information on the Old Synagogue. In: Tarnow.pl. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016 (Polish).