Pinkas Synagogue
Coordinates: 50 ° 5 ′ 21.3 ″ N , 14 ° 25 ′ 1 ″ E
The Pinkas Synagogue (Czech Pinkasova synagoga ) is derived from the early 16th century profane synagogue in Široká 3 in the Prague area Josef city . It is adjacent to the Old Jewish Cemetery .
history
Vaults and a mikveh from the late 15th century were found under the current structure . In 1492 there is evidence of a private prayer house belonging to the Horowitz family, which belonged to the U Erbů house . This prayer house came into the possession of the respected Jewish citizen Aron Meschullam Zalman Horowitz in 1519 , who, according to his status, had today's larger synagogue built in 1535. Probably since the end of the 16th century, the synagogue was named Pinkas Pinkas School after the previous owner Israel . Between 1607 and 1625, Juda Tzoref de Herz built an extension in the late Renaissance style , which contained the women's ship, the gallery and a spacious vestibule.
For centuries the Pinkas Synagogue housed the relics of the messianic martyr Salomon Molcho , who was burned in Mantua in 1532. These were the pennants and Molchos' robes.
Due to its location below street level, the Pinkas Synagogue was flooded and damaged several times. After the floods of 1758 and 1771, the Torah shrine and Bima were renovated in baroque style. In 1860 the building underwent major changes when the floor level was raised by 1.5 meters and the interior furnishings were modernized. This unsatisfactory solution was intended to be reversed as early as the 1920s, but this only became possible after the Second World War .
From 1950 to 1954 the embankment was removed, the Torah shrine, bima and portal were restored and the original plaster layers were exposed. Subsequently, from 1954 to 1959, the synagogue was converted into a memorial for the Holocaust , for the Jewish citizens of Czechoslovakia who perished during the Second World War. Jiři John and Václav Boštik designed it so that the names of almost 78,000 people were written down alphabetically according to families and places on the walls of the rooms. From 1960 to 1968 it was open to the public until moisture penetrated again causing damage. At the same time as the events of the Prague Spring , the communist city administration has now closed the synagogue. Repair work was carried out in 1989 and the inscriptions on the walls were restored from 1992 to 1995. Since then, the Pinkas Synagogue can be visited again as part of the Jewish Museum.
Building description
The Pinkas Synagogue is an elongated, single-nave room with a late Gothic reticulated vault , which is painted with Renaissance decor, and tracery windows . The entrance portal, which is designed in unusually pure early Renaissance forms, is particularly important. The baroque Torah shrine has double columns on the sides and probably dates from the end of the 17th century. The originally Gothic bima was changed in 1775 with red marble stucco and in 1793 provided with a rococo grille made of wrought iron . Otherwise there are no more furnishings in the building. Originally, the benches were set up along the walls with a view of the Bima , as in the Old New Synagogue . Today the names of the dead Czech Jews are visible again on the walls.
In the vestibule there is a memorial plaque with an inscription from 1535, which reminds of the builder and his wife.
literature
- Arno Pařík: Jewish Prague . Jewish Museum, 3rd edition, Prague 2005.
- Arno Pařík: Prague synagogues . Jewish Museum, Prague 2005.
- Podiebrad, David D. Antiquities of Prague's Josefstadt, Israelite cemetery, old-new school and other synagogues. Podebrady, Prague 1870
Web links
Old New Synagogue | High Synagogue | Jerusalem Synagogue | Klausen Synagogue | Maisel Synagogue | Pinkas Synagogue | Spanish synagogue