Pinkas Synagogue, Renaissance synagogue in Josefov, Prague, Czech Republic
Pinkas Synagogue stands at Široká 3 with a pale beige facade, a steep roof of orange-red tiles and three gabled dormers, each holding a small window. Below the roofline are three sets of large windows with dark rounded gridded panes in stone surrounds, and a six-pointed star is mounted between the central and right windows. A black metal fence with vertical bars runs across the base.
A private oratory of the Horowitz family stood here by 1492; in 1535 Aharon Meshulam Horowitz replaced the house with a family synagogue. A Renaissance annex with vestibule, women's section and gallery followed between 1607 and 1625, designed by Juda Coref de Herz. In 1860 the floor was raised 1.5 m against floods, and the 1950–1954 reconstruction restored the pre-1860 form.
The walls carry the names of 77,297 Bohemian and Moravian Shoah victims, arranged by the communities they came from and paired with birth and death dates. Painters Václav Boštík and Jiří John lettered them between 1954 and 1959. A memorial ceremony is held each year on the anniversary of the liquidation of the Theresienstadt family camp at Auschwitz, 8–9 March 1944.
Access is through a combined ticket with the Jewish Museum, which also covers other Jewish heritage sites in the area. It is advisable to allow enough time for your visit, as the walls contain many handwritten names to read.
The children's drawings on the first floor were made in lessons led by painter Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, a Bauhaus graduate. Before her deportation to Auschwitz she hid them in Theresienstadt; about 4,500 were handed to the Jewish Museum after the war.
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