Former synagogue, Former synagogue in Brandýs nad Labem-Stará Boleslav, Czech Republic
The former synagogue in Brandýs nad Labem is a classicist building from the 1820s with simple stone walls and small windows, standing in the old part of town. The interior contains a prayer hall with an elevated women's gallery, original wall paintings, and a baroque Torah cabinet dating from the 18th century.
The building was constructed in 1827-1829 following a fire that destroyed an earlier synagogue on the same site. It served for religious worship until it was closed during World War II and later used as a medical warehouse before returning to the Jewish community in the 1990s.
The building is known locally as Brandejs, and in Hebrew and Yiddish as Brandajís. Since 2014 it has housed the exhibition 'Sources of Judaism: Rabbinic Literature', and sporadically hosts Jewish prayer services again, attended by worshippers from Prague, the USA and Israel.
The site is accessible in the old town and features an exhibition titled 'Sources of Judaism' displaying historical texts and artifacts. Nearby, a Jewish cemetery about 250 meters away contains graves of former community members and complements the visit.
The prayer hall was originally surrounded on three sides by a two-storey Classical-Empire women's gallery, and the bimah stood in the middle of the hall until the late 19th century, when it was moved to a railed platform by the Torah ark in the eastern wall. The building also held the rabbi's apartment and a school classroom.
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