Great Suburb Synagogue Explained

Great Suburb Synagogue
Native Name:Передміська синагога
Image Upright:1.4
Festivals:-->
Organizational Status:-->
Functional Status:Destroyed
Location:Bożnicza-Street 16, Lviv, Lviv Oblast
Country:Ukraine
Map Type:Ukraine
Map Size:250
Map Relief:1
Coordinates:49.8481°N 23.9811°W
Architecture Type:Synagogue architecture
Architecture Style:Baroque
General Contractor:Ambroży Przychylny
Year Completed:1632
Date Destroyed:14 August 1941
Date Destroyed:-->
Materials:Stone; brick
Elevation Ft:-->

The Great Suburb Synagogue (;) was a synagogue at Bożnicza-Street 16 in Lviv, in the Lviv Oblast of Ukraine.[1] The synagogue was developed in stages, with the men's prayer hall completed in 1632, located in what was then the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The synagogue was destroyed by Nazi Germany in 1941 and the ruins dismantled during the late 1940s.

History

A wooden synagogue was erected in the Krakivske suburb in the early 1600s; however was short-lived due to fires.[1]

Permission for the construction of a stone synagogue was granted by Sigismund III Vasa, the Roman Catholic King of Poland, in 1624. The initial construction of a men's prayer hall was completed in 1632, with its initial stonework attributed to Ambroży Przychylny,[1] [2] and a women's gallery was completed in 1635. In the mid-18th century, the synagogue was covered with a Baroque-style high mansard roof. The roof was subsequently lowered and round windows added in 1871. Further improvements were completed in the first quarter of the 20th century including replacing wooden ceilings and beams, installing lighting, painting of the walls by the Fleck brothers, Eryk and Maurycy, and the plastering of the façade, interrupted by World War I and the Lwów pogrom of 1918.[1]

As the building evolved, the architectural style changed from Baroque to Renaissance, and then Neoclassical. The placement of the Bimah in the middle of the prayer hall became the prototype of many subsequent Jewish temples of significant size. Also unique was a gallery for students of the Beit Midrash and Talmud-Torah schools.[2] A series of smaller prayer houses were attached to the synagogue, in the mode of separate chapels, including those belonging to the guilds of tailors and butchers, prayer rooms of brotherhoods, Talmudic schools and others, including "Hayutim Gedolim", "Menakrem", "Melamdim", "Nosey Katov", and "Sovhe Tzedek.[1]

The synagogue was burnt to destruction by the Nazis on 14 August 1941,[2] during World War II, and was not rebuilt after war. During Soviet occupation, the ruins of the synagogue were dismantled.[1] A commemorative plaque was erected on a neighbouring building.[2]

See also

References

  1. Web site: VUL. SIANSKA, 16 – FORMER GREAT SUBURBAN SYNAGOGUE . Lviv Interactive . 1 April 2024 .
  2. Web site: Great Suburb Synagogue in Lviv (16 Syanska Street) . Virtual Shtetl . POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews . n.d. . 1 April 2024 .

External links