Synagogue of Turin, Moorish Revival synagogue in San Salvario district, Turin, Italy.
The Synagogue of Turin, also called the Israelite Temple, stands in Piazzetta Primo Levi in the San Salvario district. Enrico Petiti designed it in the Moorish Revival style: a rectangular brick block with four corner towers 27 metres high, each topped by an onion dome. The prayer hall measures 35 metres long, 16 high and 22 wide, with a women's gallery on three sides and seating for 1,400 people.
In 1848 the Jews of the Kingdom of Sardinia gained civil rights under the Albertine Statute. In 1859 the community commissioned Alessandro Antonelli to build a temple; by 1875 its cost and size exceeded their means, so they sold the unfinished structure to the city and received the plot for the present synagogue. Enrico Petiti designed the new building, inaugurated on 16 February 1884. On 20 November 1942 an incendiary bomb destroyed the interior; after consolidation in 1945, it was rebuilt and redecorated in 1949.
The building is also called Tempio Israelitico. In its basement are two small synagogues made in 1972 by Giorgio Olivetti and Giuseppe Rosenthal for daily services. The Italian-rite one, shaped like an amphitheatre, occupies rooms once used for baking matzah, and its Baroque Aron and Tevàh came from the synagogue of Chieri.
The synagogue stands at 12 Via Pio V, in Piazzetta Primo Levi, in the San Salvario district, a short walk from Turin Porta Nuova station. The main hall is on the upper level, while the two small daily prayer rooms are in the basement, reached by internal stairs. The Italian-rite room is arranged as an amphitheatre with bare brick walls.
In the synagogue's basement are two small prayer halls created in 1972 by architects Giorgio Olivetti and Giuseppe Rosenthal. The Italian-rite hall, shaped like an amphitheatre, occupies rooms once used for baking matzah, and its Baroque Ark and bimah came from the synagogue of Chieri.
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