Synagogue (Kolín)
The current building of the synagogue in Kolín (German Kolin, older also Cologne an der Elbe), a Czech community in the Okres Kolín district in the Central Bohemian region of Středočeský kraj , was built in the second half of the 17th century on the site of an older synagogue. If you do not include Prague, it is the oldest synagogue in Bohemia (and the Czech Republic ) and the largest, which was built in Bohemia and Moravia until the 18th century.
location
The secular synagogue is located in Na hradbách street, which used to form Židovská ( Jewish street) together with today's Karoliny Světlé street, i.e. in the center of the Kolín ghetto . The synagogue is offset and can hardly be seen from the street because there are three buildings in front of it, including the former Jewish school (originally built in the 14th / 15th century, later rededicated as the so-called "House of the Rabbi", today No. 126) . At the beginning of the 19th century, a small alley led from Na hradbách street to the synagogue, but it was closed in 1844–1846 when the house (no. 157) was built. After that, the courtyard with the synagogue can only be reached through the school.
history
At the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, a synagogue was built on the site, which is mentioned in 1402 as a wooden structure. It was evidently rebuilt or restored in 1422, as can be seen from the inscription "Synagogue repaired in 1422" on a memorial stone that was placed in the eastern facade. It was damaged by fire in the first half of the 17th century.
In the years 1642 to 1696 a new building in the style of the Renaissance and early Baroque was built here , which was rebuilt and expanded in the following years. In 1721 extensions were added in the west and on both sides, in 1815 there was an extension in the direction of the adjacent city fortification wall, and the last minor changes were made from 1844 to 1846.
During the German occupation, the synagogue served as a warehouse for uniforms of the Wehrmacht and SS from 1942 to 1945 .
After the Second World War , a Jewish community was founded again in Kolin and religious services were held again. After the departure of Rabbi Richard Feder , the rather small community lost interest in church services, which no longer took place from 1953/55. In 1955 the Czechoslovak state took over the administration, in 1958 the synagogue was declared a national cultural monument. The synagogue was also used as a warehouse or depot of a museum at times. A general reconstruction was carried out between 1990 and 2000.
inside rooms
In the central hall, side rooms open up in semicircular arcades, where a staircase leads to the women's gallery . There are separate wardrobes for women over the side rooms. The Torah shrine ( Aron ha-Qodesch , the holy shrine ') from the end of the 17th century has been preserved. The inscription with a dedication is dated 1696 and comes from Samuel Oppenheimer from Vienna, an uncle of the Prague chief rabbi David Oppenheimer . There are fragments of Hebrew inscriptions on the sides of the synagogue.
The main interior has a baroque vault with rich stucco from around 1700: relief depictions of fruit blossoms and vines with grapes - in Jewish symbolism synonymous with wisdom, as well as with vines, which symbolize the twelve tribes of Israel. Above the southern gallery are the inscriptions "Velvet", "Matan", "Damast" and "Atlas" - abbreviations for individual psalms which the Jews count among the so-called Ketuvim , ie to writings, part of the Tanach .
The chandelier and parts of the interior have been in the Temple Emmanuel Synagogue in Denver , USA , since the end of the Second World War . After the synagogue was dissolved in the 1950s, the then state Jewish Museum in Prague took over most of the smaller inventory items.
- Interior of the synagogue, walls with stucco
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Články z domova. Kolín - Jeruzalém na Labi , Portal Czech Travel Press (“Association Tchéque des Journalistes et Écrivains du Tourisme”), online at: czechtravelpress.cz / ...
- ↑ Židovské ghetto , website of the Kolín Tourist Information Center (TIC), online at: tickolin.cz / ...
- ↑ a b Kolín , keyword in Synagogy v Čechách a na Moravě , online at: synagogy.euweb.cz/
- ↑ a b Synagoga , in: Poche E. et.al .: Umělecké památky Čech 2., Nakladatelství ČSAV Academia, Prague 1978, online at: cestyapamatky.cz / ...
- ↑ a b Richard Feder: Dějiny Židů v Kolíně , in: Hugo Gold (ed.), The Jews and Jewish communities of Bohemia in the past and present , Jüdischer Buch- und Kunstverlag, Brünn-Prague 1934, page 277ff., Online at: digi. landesbibliothek.at / ...
- ↑ a b Jiří Fiedler: Kolín , report on the Jewish community in Kolín, online at: holocaust.cz / ...
- ↑ a b Klaus-Dieter Alicke: Lexicon of the Jewish communities in the German-speaking area , 3 volumes, Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2008, ISBN 978-3-579-08035-2 , here section Kolin (Bohemia) , in: Online version from the History of Jewish communities in the German-speaking area , online at: jewische-gemeinden.de / ...
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 1 '40 " N , 15 ° 11' 55.1" E